Dead or Alive?
by MoonDrake
Summary: Naruto is not dead! He can't be! Everyone thought he was, until he returned six years later. OMG Naruto's mature! Well, more mature than he was. Naruto returns stronger and with two new teamates. COMPLETE!
1. Prologue

Prologue

"No, it can't be true." a pink haired kunoichi gasped looking at the Hokage in horror. Lady Tsunade grabbed a bottle of sake from under her desk. "I'm sorry Sakura, but it is." Tsunade had tears streaming down her cheeks as she downed the sake. "Naruto is dead."

She declared to the assembled group. She had gathered the rookie nine, their senseis, Jiraya, and a few Anbu members. Each person had a different reaction to the hyperactive blond's death. Sakura and Hinata burst out in tears, Neji and Shino kept a blank face, only silent tears showed they cared, Lee and Gai were hugging and yelling something about youthfulness, Shikamaru was saying something about a troublesome guy, Choji was for once not eating but crying, and the rest all had sad faces on.

After everyone had settled down, Kakashi finally asked, "How?" Everyone looked up at the Hokage expectantly. " Sound nin," she replied. " He was delivering a scroll to a friend of mine in the Rice country, it was supposed to be a C rank mission, so I sent him and Jiraya. Apparently they stopped at a small town along the way and this pervert," she glared at Jiraya, " decided to do some research and left the knucklehead to train by himself." Tsunade burst into tears again so Jiraya finished the story. " I felt a large chakra blast from Naruto's training spot so I went to find out what was happening. When I got there, there was a huge crack in the Earth. There was blood everywhere and I came across two dead Sound nins and I fo-"

"That doesn't prove he's dead, there wasn't a body!" Sakura interrupted.

"You're right," Jiraya explained calmly, but what about this," he held out two objects and everyone in the room burst out in tears again or had shocked expressions on their faces. Jiraya shed silent tears as he held out a bloody forehead protector and the necklace that Naruto had won in the bet with Tsunade.

Five days later a funeral was held for Naruto. No more than thirty-five people showed up. When Tsunade saw this she punched the nearest tree to bits. "The people in this village are horrible, that boy was a hero not a demon." She yelled through tears. She felt strong arms wrap around her shoulders and she looked up to see Jiraya. She smiled gratefully at him.

Each person came up and said a few kind words about Naruto and then placed a flower on his grave. When it was Tsunade's turn, her announcement caused more tears and shock, "Naruto may have been an idiotic prankster, but he had a brave heart and unwavering loyalty to his comrades. His dream was to be the next Hokage and seeing how hard he worked and how much he cared about the village…I..I had chosen him to take up the title of Hokage after me."

Sakura cried softly in Sasuke's embrace (Yes Sasuke's back, Naruto beat the crap out of him and dragged his sorry ass back.) and Sasuke merely stood there with a blank face, he had cried the night before over his lost comrade.

After the speeches were done, everyone stood near Naruto for the last time. When the sunlight started fading, everyone started to drift away from the new grave. By nightfall everyone had gone home except for Sasuke and Sakura. They both silently held each other for comfort and stared at the grave marker, 'Here lies a trusted comrade and friend, who had a very special ability, he made everyone want to bet their hopes on him. He was going to be the next Hokage. Rest In Peace, Uzumaki, Naruto.'

" Naruto why did you have to leave us so soon."


	2. Stranger

Chapter 1

6 years later…

"What a drag, why did I have to be stuck on gate duty." Shikamaru groaned. He and Choji had been chosen to do gate duty as punishment for failing their last C rank mission. "Cheer up Shikamaru, at least we can sit around and eat all day." Choji said finishing up his fourth bag of chips that morning. Shikamaru snorted at his friend's antics and lay back on his chair. He looked up at the sky and watched as clouds drifted by.

He was interrupted from his cloud gazing as a cloaked man walked through the gates. He wore a black cloak with a red swirl on the back. The hood was up, covering his face. "May we help you sir." Shikamaru asked suspicious of this man's appearance.

"I'm just visiting, I need to speak to the Hokage."

" Do you have some ID?" Shikamaru replied.

"No I lost it when I battled some sound nins a while back," the man said sadly.

"Can you tell us your name, village and rank, if you're a shinobi."

"No that is confidential." The man growled obviously a bit angered.

"Then guess we can't let you in."

" Oh well, guess I should've listened to Kyu." With that the man disappeared in a puff of smoke and appeared on a roof nearby. The man started running toward the Hokage tower.

"How troublesome," Shikamaru said, summoning an Anbu captain.

"Yo," Kakashi appeared in front of Shikamaru.

"Rouge ninja I think, headed toward Lady Tsunade." Shikamaru quickly told Kakashi, pointing to the form a few blocks away.

"Got it." Kakashi started chasing the cloaked figure.

The man sensing Kakashi behind him, quickly leaped up and turned toward the Anbu captain, "Summoning Jutsu!" he shouted biting his thumb. A large horse-sized four-tailed fox appeared and charged toward Kakashi claws outstretched. Kakashi dodged the first attack but then was stuck doing an intricate dance of locks and dodges as the fox clawed and bit at him. Meanwhile the man had reached the tower roof.

He landed on the windowsill and looked down at the sleeping Hokage drooling on her paper pillow. 'She hasn't changed one bit.' He smiled to himself.

"Lady Tsunade, WAKE UP!" he shouted into the Hokage's ear grinning to himself.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!" Tsuande screamed punching toward the voice that had interrupted her 11:46 nap. "Orochimaru, Sound nins," He said calmly, leaping away from the punch, landing on the window again. "Ring any bells."

This immediately got Tsunade's attention, "What, when, how," she asked.

"Orochimaru is building up an army and bringing them here to take down Konaha."

She started digesting this information then looked over at the strange man, "Wait, who are you and how did you get in here."

"Well who I am," he seemed to think on it for a moment, "I don't feel like telling you, secondly, your window was open." This strangers words enraged Tsunade and she broke her desk in half.

"You little brat, you come in here without permission, wake me from my nap and then tell me Orochimaru is coming with an army of sound nins! Give me one good reason to believe a word you've said, oh and you owe me a new desk." She shouted.

"Oh please, you've broken more than four desks already, oh and you Anbu captain finally caught up."

Kakashi appeared behind the man holding a kunai to his throat, "Annoying fox you have." He murmured in his captive's ear.

"Well I would've taken you on myself but Kiro wanted to play." The man retorted.

The door to the Hokage's office burst open and Shizune, Sakura and three Anbu members entered. "We heard shouting." An Anbu member with a wolf mask stated.

"We have a visitor," Tsunade glaring at the man behind her.

The man pouted (well you can't see his face but if you could he'd be pouting.) "Humph, I come here trying to warn you about a possible war and this is the treatment I get, some pervert holding a kunai to my throat and hostile glares and insults, fine I'm outta here." He disappeared in a poof of smoke.

'Shadow clone!' Kakashi thought surprised. He turned around and scanned the rooftops for the strange cloaked man.

"There!" Sakura yelled pointing to a black blur near the gate. Kakashi and the other Anbu members sped after him.

After everyone left her office Tsunade thought to herself about the strange man. 'Should I believe him, he seems to know us. How'd he know I had already gone through more than four desks and how did he know Kakashi was a pervert.'

As the man approached the gate, he felt himself stiffen and unable to move. He felt himself turn around and saw his shadow connected to Shikamaru. "Dammit." He swore angrily.

"Where are you going so soon, you just got here?" Shikamaru taunted with a smirk.

"Good job Shikamaru." Kakashi complimented reaching the pair. "So are you going to tell us who you are or do we have to find out ourselves."

"Hmm let me think… I'll go with choice number two." The man replied with a smirk. (Still can't see his face.)

"Oh well to bad for you, Shikamaru." Kakashi said nodding at Shikamaru. Shikamaru reached up toward his head and grabbed where the hood would be if he was wearing one. The other man was forced to do the same. "Bastard." The man growled. Shikamaru just smirked and yanked his hand back. The man's hood was pulled back and the group was met with a pair of bright blue eyes and yellow hair.

Everyone gasped and stepped back, Shikamaru's jutsu was released. "Na…Naruto!" Kakashi gasped.

"Hey everyone, miss me?" Naruto replied with his infamous grin.


	3. Gone again

Chapter Two

"Naruto, but how…and when…and who, but…" Shikamaru was having trouble speaking properly over the shock.

"Hey pineapple head, are you going to finish any of these sentences?" Naruto asked smirking.

Seeing that no one was responding he turned to leave. "Well anyway, I have a busy schedule to keep so gotta go." He said trying to run out the gate. Kakashi appeared in front of him, "Oh no you don't, you have some explaining to do, you're not going anywhere."

"Try and stop me," Naruto replied jumping high over Kakashi's head. Naruto landed outside the gate and started running toward the forest, Kakashi in hot pursuit.

"You're getting slow Kakashi-sensei." Naruto taunted his teacher, speeding ahead. He prepared himself to jump up to the nearest tree, when he stumbled, gasping in pain. 'Not now, not again.' Naruto thought before passing out.

"Naruto!" Kakashi yelled as he saw the blond hit the ground. He noticed Naruto had gripped his side in pain before he fell. Kakashi reached Naruto and gently lifted his cloak and shirt from over his side and gasped in surprise. Naruto's side was glowing with red chakra and there was a long bloody cut running from his right hip to his chest. "Naruto, what happened?" Kakashi asked in pity. Kakashi picked the blond up bridal style and ran back toward the village.

"What happened!" Shikamaru demanded, seeing the unconscious knucklehead. Behind him Sasuke and Sakura had appeared.

"So who is that stranger?" Sasuke asked pointing to the man in Kakashi's arms.

"Sasuke I know it's been six years, and he changed his hairstyle and clothes, but don't you recognize a comrade?" Kakashi asked. Sasuke eyes widened as he got a good look at the strange man, "D..dobe!" Naruto stirred in Kakashi's arms and looked over at the source of the new voice. Next to him Sakura gasped and nearly fainted falling into an Anbu member's arms. He was wearing a bright green jumpsuit underneath his cloak and had an unidentifiable beast on his mask.

"Long time, no see eh Teme?" Naruto said lazily. Kakashi set him down and he struggled to his feet.

Sakura stood and tried to overcome her shock, it didn't take too long. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, WE THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!!!" Sasuke and Sakura shouted in unison. Sakura punched him into the ground.

"What the hell, you've gotten stronger Sakura." Naruto replied rubbing his head as he pulled himself from the new crater in the ground.

"Sakura, we just finished filling the last hole." Kakashi complained.

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR COMPLAINTS, I'M TRYING TO FIGURE OUT IF I SHOULD BEAT NARUTO INTO OBLIVION OR HUG THE GUTS RIGHT OUT OF HIM!" Sakura yelled in reply. Naruto paled when he heard his choices of punishment. 'How about I run away before she can finish deciding.' Naruto said to himself. He quickly got to his feet and jumped through the gate while everyone else backed away from the fuming Sakura.

"Oi Dobe!" Sasuke called as Naruto leaped into the trees. Everyone turned as Sasuke called out.

"NARUTO WHERE THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!" Sakura shouted jumping up after him.

"As far away from this stupid village as possible." He replied speeding ahead. By this time everyone was after their blond comrade and everyone heard his remark. 'What the hell has happened to him.' Sasuke pondered.

"Leave me alone already!" Naruto cried, swiftly making hand seals. Boar, Monkey, Ram, Tiger "Earth Element: Rock Missile Jutsu!" (By the way I made this up, I have no clue if there are certain patterns to the hand seals or whatever, so don't kill me.) Below Naruto bits of rock and earth flew up and was launched at the Konaha ninja. More missiles were shot at the trees in front of the group, breaking branches, leaving a blockade between Naruto and his comrades.

"I'm sorry." Naruto whispered as he launched himself through the forest.


	4. New Team

'Yay I made it this far!'

'Hey I don't own Naruto, do I?' asks Ravaree (little imaginary dragon companion)

-Ravaree thoughts-

-No if you did, Naruto would be the least popular show in the world-

'You're mean'

-And your point is-

'Hmph' (Turns back to Ravaree)

'Thanks soo much to everyone who read and reviewed my story, you all make me feel warm and fuzzy inside!'

-Well duh, that's easy, I could do that with a cookie.-

'Could not (sticks tongue out at Ravaree)

-Hey want a cookie?-

'Ooh what kind?'

-Chocolate chip.-

'Okay (takes cookie and starts munching) I love you Ravaree.'

-So easy-

'Thoughts'

"Speaking"

Okay on with the story!

Chapter 3

Naruto kept going past till he reached a small clearing, miles away from his former teammates. "Toru, Tala?" He called. He wandered around the clearing looking in bushes, climbing up trees and after awhile he got so desperate that he started looking under everything in the clearing.

He was in the process of examining the underside of a small rock when he heard a soft voice dripping with sarcasm ask, "Yes you sure are going to find two goat-sized dragons under a rock that's no bigger than your head.

"Where have you been!?" He dropped the rock and glared over at the two dragons. (Yes dragons, I couldn't help it, like I said in my profile, I'm a dragon freak.) The dragons were twins, one male and one female. Unless you actually asked them you probably wouldn't guess that they were related. Toru, the male was about the size of a full-grown goat and was covered in beautiful diamond-shaped ruby red scales. His claws and horns were bright gold that shone in the sunlight. He was more muscular and strong looking than his sister.

Tala was almost a complete opposite of her brother. She was smaller and had more delicate teardrop-shaped scales that shone a dark rich blue. Her horns, claws and back spikes were silver.

"Don't yell at us, it's not our fault that you're to much of a dobe to look directly above your head." Toru said with an amused purr.

'Geez he's like a second Sasuke.' Naruto groaned.

"I heard that." Toru smirked. He had the annoying ability of being able to read minds. "Toru be nice, he was just worried." Tala said quietly perching on a large rock nearby. "Just think, what if it were one of us who couldn't find the others. If it was me I'd search and search, and then I know I probably wouldn't find you and then I'd be like, Oh no! They left me, they didn't like me anymore so they ran away to some other country and there they found a new prettier dragon that was purple and her name was Dara and then Toru would fall in love with her and forget all about me and then I'd catch up to you guys one day and you'd be like 'who are you' and I'd be lik-"

While Tala told her 'story' Toru was trying to stop her. "Tala….Ta-," " –ame was Dara an-,"

"Tala." "I'd be lik-," Fed up with her ranting Toru blew a large fireball at Tala, making her jump into the air to avoid it. Somehow she was still able to keep talking while doing this. This caused Toru scales to start glowing a bright red and smoke started drifting from his nostrils. Toru started slashing and biting at Tala who while still talking dodged each and every attack. What was Naruto doing while this went on you ask? You are all probably thinking that by this point Naruto is freaking out and yelling at the two, but no, he was, well…he was reading a book called, '100 Different Kinds of Ramen.'

Naruto decided to intervene when Toru started blasting away the surrounding trees. "TORU QUIT KILLING THE FOREST, YOU'RE GOING TO DRAW ATTENTION TO US!" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs. Toru immediately stopped and sat down angrily on a patch of moss. Satisfied, Naruto then turned his attention to the still blabbering Tala.

"TALA!!!" He screamed twice as loud. Tala stopped her chattering and looked over at Naruto. She cocked her head to one side and in a confused voice asked, "Nani?"

Naruto just shook his head and simply stated, "You're doing it again." Tala shuffled her paws in embarrassment. "Sorry." (Hey can someone tell me what the Japanese term for sorry is.)

When he saw that both young dragons were done settled down and pulled out his book again.

"Kakashi, Kiba, Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Sakura, you will find Naruto and bring him back. Do anything you must to retrieve him, just don't kill him." Tsunade ordered.

"Hai." The squad replied in unison, jumping out the window and toward the forest.

"Naruto, you better have one heck of a excuse for why you've been gone so long." Tsunade sighed, grabbing a sake bottle from her secret stash.

The Naruto retrieval squad leapt through the trees, stopping when they came to the wall of branches and rock. Shikamaru turned to the group, "Okay Kakashi, Kiba, you're on."

Kakashi bit his thumb and started going through a series of seals. In a poof of smoke eight nin dogs appeared. "Do you remember Naruto's scent." He asked the dogs. "How could we forget it?" A small pug replied.

"Good, Naruto's alive and we need to find him."

"Hai!" The dog said and each flew off in a different direction to find the scent.

Meanwhile, Kiba and Akamaru, had gone off in another direction. After several minutes, Kiba and the pug returned. "We found his trail." Kiba stated.

"Good," Shikamaru replied, "lead the way." Kiba shot off to the right, the others right behind. After many minutes of twists and turns Kiba stopped.

"There's a small clearing up ahead and I smell Naruto, bu-"

"Okay let's go get him!" Sakura yelled, preparing to jump down. She was usually cool-headed during missions and was definitely not the first to jump in, but unfortunately, some of Naruto's rashness had rubbed off on her.

Before she could run up and punch Naruto in the face, Shikamaru grabbed her from behind.

"Wait," Kiba ordered her. "Like I was saying, I smell Naruto, but there's two strange peo..an..things with him."

"What do you mean things?" Sakura asked nervously.

"Things as in, I have never smelled anything like this before, they're unidentifiable."

The group was silent trying to process this information. Shikamaru was the first to speak, "Okay, Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke, you guys surround them down on the ground. Kiba will stay in the trees, and I'll go and try to talk to Naruto, but as troublesome as it is, he'll probably run or fight. If he runs, stop him, if he fights, I'll probably need backup. Now go."

"Hai!" They all ran to their positions.

"Shit, Toru, Tala we have company." Naruto said quietly.

"Can we have some fun this time?" Toru asked hopefully. "I don-" Toru and Tala looked up at him with sad puppy-dog eyes. (Actually, sad little baby dragon eyes.)

Naruto sighed, "Fine, but no killing."

"Yeah!" They both shouted disappearing into thin air. 'Damn I wish I had invisibility powers.'

Naruto turned and looked into the forest. "Darn, I was hoping I had lost you back at Konaha." Naruto shouted.

"Yeah Lady Tsunade insisted we bring you back, so troublesome." Shikamaru replied lifting his Shadow concealing technique. (Once again totally made that jutsu up, it lets you hide yourself in any shadow making you almost invisible.) Your teammates aren't that great at hiding are they?" Naruto smirked as he heard Sakura scream. Coming from he forest came a great roar, Kiba swore, Akamaru barked and Kakashi and Sasuke were silent.

"What the hell is going on!" Shikamaru shouted at no one in particular.

Naruto shrugged, "My friends were bored."

Two large horse-sized forms swooped low to the ground dropping the rest of Shikamaru's squad to the ground. They then circled around and landed behind Naruto where they shrunk and folded their wings to their bodies.

"Shikamaru, Kakashi-sensei, Sakura, Kiba, Akamaru, and Sasuke, meet my new team, Toru and Tala." The said people just stared at the two dragons in fear and awe.


	5. Reactions

Hey everyone, once again thanks sooooo much to all of you who reviewed. Also I love the constructive criticism, keep it coming! I have found out, I LOVE reviews.

I promise to update as much as I possibly can, but unfortunately I probably won't get the chapters out as often as I have this week because it was mid winter break. But I'll try my best. (Looks at math homework) I'd rather write my fanfic, (shrugs, throws math book out window, hits big scary guy on head, runs.)

This time I'm going to write some in other people's view.

Anyway enough of my randomness, on with the story!

-About time-

'Shut up I'm trying my best'

Chapter 4

/Shikamaru/

When those dragons landed next to Naruto, I finally got a good look at them. To say the least I was pretty shocked though I tried my best not to show it. I looked up at Naruto when I realized that he wasn't wearing his cloak.

He had defiantly grown. He was now about 6'3" and had a more wiry form. He was wearing a black muscle shirt and black pants that stopped a couple inches short from his shoes. Over his muscle shirt he wore an orange vest, it wasn't bright orange like he wore when he was a genin. It was more of a burnt orange. Definitely an improvement from his old jumpsuit.

His hair was longer and much less wild. His bangs reached down to his nose and the rest proceeded down to his shoulders. He wasn't wearing his forehead protector.

As I looked him over trying to find the hyperactive knucklehead that I knew, I mentally slapped myself for letting my mind drift away from the two fire-breathing lizards that could probably kill me in a nanosecond.

As I started examining the two dragons, I was desperately trying to come up with a plan to convince Naruto to come back. It would be kinda troublesome if the dragons didn't want him to go.

"We like Naruto and we'd rather not have him go." The larger red dragon spoke. Everyone looked at him in shock.

"Yes we can speak." It answered Shikamaru's mental question. How is he doing that. "It's kinda obvious, baka, I can read minds. I can't believe Naruto thought you were the smart one." The dragon said glaring over at Shikamaru.

How…Troublesome.

/Sakura/

How, when, who, what , where. I had so many questions running through my head. I didn't know if I should go over and beat Naruto over the head for running away again or to hug him and never let go. I decided hitting him was the best way to go and then I would demand answers for all my questions.

I started running toward him, fist raised. He looked over at me, saw my fist, and…pulled out a book and started reading. I stumbled in surprise and fell face first into the dirt. I quickly jumped up, "Why the heck are you reading!"

He looked up with a bored expression, "I want to see how the story ends." Everyone sweat dropped. Everyone that is except Kakashi, who had pulled out his own book.

What happened to him, before he would panic when he saw my fist.

Toru appeared next to me. "He met us." He stated simply, answering my question.

I turned toward him ready to strike , "Quit reading our thoughts!" I yelled punching the young dragon.

"Ow, I can't believe you used to like her." Toru complained putting Naruto between him and Sakura.

Naruto just grinned.

/Kakashi/

Knowing that we would find out about Naruto and his dragons when he chose to tell us and no sooner, I pulled out volume four of Icha Icha Paradise. Everyone sweat dropped as I started giggling into my book.

/Kiba/

WHERE THE HECK DID HE FIND..DR…DRAGONS!!! I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THERE WERE ANY DRAGONS LEFT!!!

My mouth was hanging open and my eyes were bugging out while Akamaru growled menacingly at the strange scent that the dragons had.

Naruto looked over at me from over his book, "Oi, Kiba," I reluctantly averted my eyes from the dragons to look at him. He grinned, "Tala says you breath stinks."

I quickly shut my mouth in embarrassment when the sapphire dragon covered her nose with a delicate paw.

I could tell the rest of the squad were dying to ask Naruto what had been going on, but apparently they were having trouble with their shock.

Suddenly Sasuke stepped forward, dark eyes changing to his sharingan. "Dobe, what have you gone and done this time."

Naruto cocked his head, "Nani, what did I do?"

Everyone fell over at his stupid question.

/Sasuke/

"Dobe, what have you gone and done this time." I thought to myself.

"Nani, what did I do?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WHAT DID YOU DO, BAKA. WHERE THE HECK DID YOU FIND TWO DRAGONS AND WHY DID YOU LET US ALL BELIEVE YOU WERE DEAD!"

Everyone stared at me in surprise. Sasuke Uchiha never yells.

Naruto recovered first and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Heheh, Oh, that. Well, it's a long story."

"Well get ready to tell it, because we're not going anywhere till you explain." I crossed my arms expectantly.

"Fine," Naruto said in defeat. This caused another shock, Naruto accepted defeat, even if it's only giving and explanation. I looked around the clearing and was happy to find out that I wasn't the only one who was surprised. Even the two dragons looked surprised.

"Well it started with the sound nins."


	6. Flashback

Sorry everybody, I meant to update Sunday afternoon, but my mom dragged me off to the mall to find a new fancy top. P

Me: Grabs doorframe, "NO!"

Mom: Sighs, "I'll buy you a caramel frappaccino."

Me: "What size?"

Mom: "Venti."

Me: Okay! Grabs venti caramel frappaccino, Sip, slurp, gulp. "Can I have another?"

Anyway, thanks so much for reviews.

Chapter 5

This is a flashback, this whole chapter is about what happened to Naruto, but he leaves a few important details out that you'll learn about later.

"But Ero-Sennin, I want to learn a new jutsu." Naruto whined.

"Too bad kid, I won't teach you any new jutsus until you master the ones I've already taught you. Now you train here while I go do some research." Jiraya grinned happily, running to the town below.

"Stupid, pervert." Naruto mumbled angrily. He summoned six Kage Bunshin and started sparring.

A couple hours later, Naruto was on his back panting. "That was one hell of a workout." He said out loud.

"Oh please, what you just did is a warm up for me." A strange man said from behind. Naruto jumped up into a fighting stance. 'What the hell I didn't even sense his chakra signature.'

Naruto looked at the man's forehead protector and swore. Sound Nin.

"Don't worry kid, Orochimaru just wants to play with you for a little bit." The man grinned evilly as four more appeared, surrounding him.

"I don't care what that flippin' teme wants!" Naruto retorted. (Just so you know, I say flip, instead of fuck, so get used to it.) The sound nin in front of him gathered chakra in his hand and punched the ground.

'I thought only granny Tsunade could do that!' Naruto's eyes widened as a huge crack came closer to him. He jumped high to avoid it but was quickly kicked on the head by a different sound nin. His forehead protector fell to the ground, blood dripping from it. Naruto crashed nearby, a cut on his forehead, blood was flowing out.

"I don't see why Orochimaru-sama wants you, you're just a pathetic little weakling." A rough hand grabbed his collar pulling him up. The man holding him quickly let go when he felt the killing intent coming from this young boy. What he saw next caused the man to back right into the crack in the ground.

"What the hell." A woman asked. She seemed about mid 20's and had black hair that reached down past her shoulders. She had bright green eyes.

She looked at the strange boy, trying to figure out what had scared her teammate. Naruto looked up at her and she couldn't help but stare back. Green eyes met slit-pupil blood red eyes.

Before she could make a move, Naruto charged. She quickly took up a fighting stance, only to be knocked down when a second Naruto appeared behind her, kicking her chest.

She tried to get back up, but her heart was failing due to the powerful kick. She got a last glimpse of her other two teammates running at the boy with drawn kunai before she blacked out.

"How dare you, you teme!" A large man and a smaller man raced toward Naruto throwing kunai. Naruto jumped into the air and landed behind the two men. In his hand was a glowing sphere of red chakra. "Rasengan!" Naruto yelled, slamming the chakra into the larger man's stomach. The man was crashed into a group of trees. He didn't get up.

Seeing this the last man, jumped into the trees and took off, Naruto in hot pursuit. A few minutes later Naruto and the sound nin reached the edge of the forest. Naruto had calmed down a bit, but the Kyuubi's blood thirst was still influencing his thoughts.

"Please no, get away from me!" the man cried in panic as Naruto stepped closer. The man found that he couldn't avert his gaze from those blood-colored orbs. He stepped backwards only to trip over a large tree root.

When Naruto saw the fallen man he quickly dispelled Kyuubi's chakra and fell to the ground, exhausted from his fight and from using too much red chakra. "Damn." He muttered before he passed out.

"Naruto-kun, time to wake up."

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, which he found to be a great mistake because the first thing he saw was Orochimaru, grinning wickedly at him. Naruto tried getting up, only to find he was in a dirty cell and was chained to the ground.

When he tried to speak he found that no sound came out. He glared up at Orochimaru as if to say, "What the hell did you do to me." Orochimaru's grin just grew larger. "You'll find that you can't speak because of a silencing jutsu I learned a few years back." He said in that creepy snake voice. "You're just too annoying when you can speak." He added.

Orochimaru turned to leave then as if just remembering something he turned back to his captive. "You might as well give up, everyone in Konaha thinks you're dead."

Naruto mouthed, "Ero-sennin won't think I dead just because of a few dead sound nin." Orochimaru just grinned again, "I know, that's why I put you're bloody forehead protector and Tsunade's necklace by the edge of the crack in the earth."

Satisfied with Naruto's horror filled expression he started walking away.

Every time Orochimaru came to see his new "toy," Naruto pretended to be unconscious, because he found out quickly that Orochimaru merely looked at him for a few minutes before walking away. All the while, Naruto was slowly building up his chakra and finally about three days later, he was able to blast his chains away with a special escape jutsu that Ero-sennin taught him.

From there he easily picked the lock and ran down the halls looking for an exit. Twenty minutes later he had found it and was running through the forest. 'That was way too easy.' Naruto thought uneasily. 'Almost like he wanted me to leave.' Then a horrible thought struck him, 'What did he do to me before I woke up.'

A few days after escaping from Orochimaru, Naruto decided he should start heading home. He set off early in the morning. At noon he rested by a small creek, taking a break. He laid back and started dozing off, only to be jolted awake by two powerful chakra surges.

The bushes a few yards away started rustling. Naruto leaped up into a fighting stance and slowly crept forward. He reached the bush and carefully pushed back the leaves. Before he knew what was happening, he was on his back with two dogs on his chest. He started laughing and started to sit up. "What are you two doing out he all alo-" he froze. "You're not d..dogs." He got a good look at the two attackers. They looked like small horses, except horses weren't covered in scales, or had sharp teeth, wings, or claws.

"Dogs!" The red dragon spoke. "Did he call us dogs!" Naruto stared wide-eyed at the mutant horse that he found could now talk.

The blue dragon rolled her eyes at the male. "Calm down Toru, he's probably never seen a real dragon." She turned her attention to Naruto. "Sorry about that, Toru has a temper."

Naruto just kept staring, unable to speak without stumbling over his words. "Naruto, are you okay." Naruto's eyes widened at the mutant talking horse that knew his name. Toru ruffled his scales in irritation. "Who're you calling me a mutant horse. Humph, if I'm a mutant horse than you're one ugly moose." Naruto passed out.

"Oi Naruto!" Toru shouted concerned. "Tala," he turned to his sister, "I think you broke him."

"Oops. My bad." Tala sat back on her haunches and rubbed the back of her head with a forepaw.

Naruto found himself in front of Kyuubi. "Hey fox! What the heck am I doing here!" Naruto shouted at the large eye in front of him.

'Quit shouting gaki, you're hurting my ears.' The fox complained. (Gaki is brat right?)

"Why am I here," he paused then began to panic, "I'm not dead am I!" he wailed. "I CAN'T DIE YET, I NEED TO BECOME HOKAGE. I CAN'T DIE A GENIN!" A large paw shot out of the cage pinning Naruto to the ground.

"Shut up, no gaki, you're not dead." Naruto stopped struggling. "I called you here to talk about those two draclings.

"Oh. What about them?"

"You need to protect those two."

"Why."

"Those draclings, they're not real dragons."

"What do you mean." Naruto asked confused.

"Those two…are the ten-tailed demon, Taloru."

Naruto had a stunned look on his face.

"Gaki, gaki…SNAP OUT OF IT!" Kyuubi roared. Naruto quickly came to his senses rubbing his ears.

"What do you mean ten-tailed dragon." Naruto finally managed, his ears still ringing.

"Sit down gaki, and prepare yourself for a history lesson." Naruto huffed then reluctantly settled down knowing that Kyuubi wouldn't let him leave until he was done.

"Many, many years ago when the demons roamed free without human containers, there were nine demons, including me. Demons aren't born in this world. Most of my kind lives in another dimension and only very powerful demons can come to this world. We demons prefer your world to ours. Our world is a wasteland. Your world has water, fresh air, trees, mountains and other luxurious resources. Those of us who have made it to this world can sense when another finally makes it into this world.

About fifty years ago a new demon came to this world. Actually, two new demons. They were twin dragons Toru and Tala. Each of them possessed five tails. We thought they weren't too powerful, at least not as powerful as me so we let them live with us because, well they were very young dragons. They were thirty years old, thirty human years, but ten human years is the equivalent to one dragon year. They could barely even speak yet.

Each of the nine demons took turns taking care of the twins. Every five years the twins would switch caretakers. When it was my turn I took them into the forest. One day they were playing by a creek while I was hunting. I felt and saw a large chakra blast. I knew it was the twins because the chakra blast was purple, that was Toru and Tala's signature chakra color, like mine is red.

When I reached the creek I saw that Toru and Tala weren't where I left them. Instead of the twins there was a purple ten-tailed dragon. I approached slowly and called out to it and it answered in Toru's voice. "Uncle Kyuubi, look, I have more tails than you now!"

Apparently Toru and Tala somehow connected their thoughts with each other then they found themselves in one body with ten tails. Toru and Tala were both still there, there was one body but two minds. We found a few hours later, they could separate to their own individual bodies again by separating their thoughts.

I had the twins perfect their merging technique over the five years they were with me.

When the twins reached their sixth year of age (dragon years), they were more powerful than all nine demons put together. Luckily we were all like family, because otherwise the twins could easily kill us all. One day about twenty years ago, the twins ate a drugged chicken. Humans came and captured the twins while they were asleep. They believed that the twins were going to destroy their village so they sealed Toru and Tala into twin newborn humans. Those two were the first human containers.

Naturally, when we found out what the humans had done, the nine demons started rampaging and destroying the villages. I went after the Konaha and, well you know the rest after that."

Kyuubi finally finished and looked over at Naruto.

"Fox, what happened to Toru and Tala. You said they were human containers, but the two I met are dragons." Naruto looked up expectantly at Kyuubi.

"Well, they were the first human containers, so the seal was a bit weaker. Toru and Tala must have been able to merge with their humans."

Naruto opened his mouth to ask another of his endless questions, but sensing the twins' concern outside Kyuubi forced Naruto into consciousness.

Whew, this flashback is taking longer than I thought. I thought I would fit it all into one big chapter but I'm barely half done and I'm already at over 2100 words! I'll try to update by Thursday. Thanks for reading!


	7. Flashback Cont

Sorry everyone, I kinda messed up a few things in the last chapter. If you're wondering how Naruto magically got his voice back, the jutsu that Orochimaru used on him was a temporary one that would release after he left his cell. Also when Toru said "Tala I think you broke him," it's supposed to be the other way around. Tala tells Toru that not Toru telling Tala.

Also Sorry…again. I know I said I'd update Thursday but I had soooo much homework. I spent 4 hours on Social studies! Just Social Studies!!!

Now, on with the story!!!

"Geez, this guy can sleep forever." Toru complained.

"Well, you didn't have to hit him." Tala retorted. Earlier, after Naruto had fainted, Toru had tried to wake him up by punching him in the face with his tail. "You probably gave him a concussion."

"You always wake up when I hit you."

"Yes, but Naruto doesn't have scales as hard as rocks on his head."

"So." Toru wandered toward the river, annoyed at how his sister was talking to him.

A few minutes later Toru rejoined the two. "Hey I think he's waking up." Toru exclaimed as Naruto's eyes started fluttering open. Tala looked in closer.

Naruto opened his eyes as Tala inched her face closer. "AHHH!" Naruto screeched as he came face to face with Tala's mouth, a few teeth hung out over her lip.

Tala quickly backed up. "Gomen!" She screeched back. "I was just checking to see if you were waking up. When you fainted we thought you had died or something. We were thinking what if you died from shock or what if just the sight of us caused you to have a mental break down and then you were a lifeless vegetable for the rest of you're life! How would me and Toru be able to live with the guilt, we'd wander around the continent unable to settle down because then that would just make us more guilty for leading our happy little lives while you resembled a statue, a lonely statue that wouldn't be able to think."

Toru wrapped his tail around Tala's muzzle, muffling her ranting.

"Sorry about that. Tala has some strange problem where she visualizes what could've been and the unfortunetly she has to say aloud, everything that she thinks up. Really annoying, having a sister that won't shut up. It drives enemies crazy. They'll attack her and she'll be able to dodge every attack while still talking."

Naruto, having gotten over the shock of talking to two dragons, just grinned. "Oh well, nobody's perfect."

A few hours later Naruto was quite comfortable with Toru's mind reading and Tala's blabbling. They had caught a few fish and were getting to know each other over dinner.

"So," Naruto began, taking a huge bite of fish, "Whff wesl ca u dff." The twins gave him a funny look. Naruto quickly swallowed his fish. "I mean…what else can you do?"

"Well you already know that I can read human minds, well…let's see, Tala can read animal minds, and we can read each others mind. We can both increase or decrease our size. I can blow fire, create lightning, and control wind. Tala can shoot water and ice, control earth and rocks and can also control wind. You know, the usual." Toru became confused at Naruto's shocked face. "What?"

For about three years Naruto traveled around with Toru and Tala. They fought bandits and rouge ninja, they stopped and explored different towns. Toru and Tala knew a very advanced henge that barely used any chakra, so byakugan and sharingan couldn't see it.

"Naruto, we want to go to Konaha." Tala announced unexpectedly one day.

"Why?" Naruto asked.

"We wanna meet you friends and eat Ichiraku ramen!" Toru and Tala exclaimed in unison. Naruto stumled in surprise, falling face first in the dirt.

"Well…" Naruto scratched the back of his head trying to think of an excuse not to go. "umm, well you see, I, something…" Naruto trailed off.

Toru looked over at him sharply, "I heard that!"

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked nervously.

"You don't want to go, you're hiding something from us. You're trying to come up with an excuse no to go!" Toru accused.

"Well…" Naruto sighed in defeat, "My friends, they well, they don't know about my umm…my condition."

"Oh." The twins looked away. "We don't have to go." Toru wandered away with a guilty expression and Tala's scales dulled in depression.

Unable to stand his two comrades like this, he announced reluctantly, "Okay, we can…we can visit for a few hours, but we're avoiding my friends, b-"

"Yeah!" Toru erupted from some nearby bushes. Soon Naruto found himself on his back with two exicted dragons bouncing on his chest. "Toru….Tala…can..'t……br…ea….t..h." Naruto gasped.

The twins quickly hopped off. "Gomen!" They both laid their ears back in embaressment. Naruto just chuckled at the seven year olds' antics. (Yes they are seven, dragon years for them, but their human forms are 16. Just to clear things up, Naruto is 15 in the flashback, 21 in present time. If I said some other age earlier for the dragons that I don't remember, pretend I never said it, I don't feel like reading through all my chapters, Toru and Tala are 7 and that's final.)

"Okay as I was saying," Naruto continued, "We can go…after you are able to conceal your chakra from enemies." Both dragons were immediately depressed. They were naturally excellent at doing jutsus and fighting, but for some reason they had a very hard time with concealing their chakra.

Naruto gave them an apologetic expression. "Sorry guys, your chakra is detected way to easily and Konaha has a lot of skilled shinobi and kunoichi."

"We understand." Both replied.

"Well, the sooner you start, the sooner we can go." Both dragons perked at this. They ran off toward a nearby stream to start practicing.

Nothing eventful happens for the next three years, so I'm going to skip ahead. So now Naruto has been "dead" for about six years. This is a few days before he warns Tsunade.

Naruto walked through the forest, closer and closer to his home. Toru and Tala had finally managed to conceal their chakra.

"Naruto, how much longer." Tala complained.

"A couple days walk." He replied for the seventh time that morning. Later that afternoon, they stopped for a break by a river.

"Tala, see if you can find some fish."

"Okay!" She replied excitedly. She ran toward the river, but instead of plowing straight into the water she leaped up near the edge, unfurling her wings. She flew up fifty feet above the water before she snapped her wings closed and plummeted down into the water. She didn't even make a splash as her body slid under the surface.

Naruto started putting together a fire. When there was a good stack of branches, Toru blew a wisp of flame onto it. "Show off," Naruto grumbled, putting away his flint.

Toru grinned.

Tala emerged from the bushes dropping three fish by the fire. She had a thoughtful expression. "Hey Tala, what's wrong?" Tala didn't seem to hear. "Tala…TALA!" Toru roared in her ear. Naruto flinched in compassion, knowing just how loud Toru yelled. Tala turned to Toru with a confused expression. "Nani."

"What's wrong." Toru asked.

"I heard a group of wolves nearby. They were talking about some guy that reminded them of a snake."

Naruto looked up sharply. "What did they say." Naruto demanded.

"They said something about a strange snake man that was traveling toward Konaha with a large group of men with shiny metal plates on their foreheads, like yours."

Naruto paled, "Orochimaru and sound nins." He whispered. He quickly went bit his thumb and slammed his hand down, "Summoning Jutsu." A small orange fox appeared. It had three tails. Ever since he had spoken with Kyuubi, he had started summoning foxes instead of toads, and he didn't know why.

"Whatcha need?" She little fox asked.

"I need you to gather information on Orochimaru who is traveling with a group of sound nins, heading toward Konaha. Find out how many shinobi there are and if you can, find out what they're planning.

"Hai!" The fox ran off into the forest.

Naruto turned back toward Toru and Tala, who were looking at him anxiously. "Well, guess we'll wait here till he gets back." Toru and Tala knew that thoughtful look that Naruto had, it meant he wasn't going to tellthem anything until he wanted to.

About four hours later the three-tailed fox returned. It was darkout and Toru was woken from a nap as the fox poofed next to Naruto.

"Orochimaru is planning a attack on Konaha. He has an army of around three hundred sound nins." Naruto's eyes widened at this information, where did Orochimaru get three hundred ninja.

"What rank are the sound nin?" Naruto asked.

"Half the force is genin, a quarter is chunin and the rest are jounin. I overheard Orochimaru, he plans to attack in three weeks at dawn."

Naruto paled. 'I have to warn Tsunade.' He thought urgently. He turned to Toru and Tala's anxious expressions.

"Did you hear that, Toru?" Naruto asked. Toru nodded. "Ok, we're going to Konaha." Tala and Toru cheered. "We're not on vacation." The twins got a depressed look on their faces. Naruto chuckled.

Two days later found Naruto at the gates of Konaha. He had left the twins at their campsite so he could make sure Konaha was safe for them to come later. He didn't want anyone recognizing him and taking it out on the twins.


	8. Going Home

Chapter 7

When Naruto finished his story he looked up at the group.

"So," Shikamaru began, "What did Orochimaru do."

"Umm, well…I..don't know." Naruto had his fake smile on.

"Quit lying Naruto." Kakashi demanded as he started reading hisbook again.

"No, I don't know." Naruto tried again. Toru came up behind him, "If you don't tell them I'll show them. They're you're friends, they won't hate you, they'll understand."

"But, I…" Naruto got a defiant look on his face. "I don't want anyone to know about this." Naruto attempted leaping up into a nearby tree but was quickly knocked to the ground by Tala.

"Tell them! Quit being stubborn." Tala roared. Naruto crashed to the ground and was promptly held down by Tala's tail. "Toru, if you'd do the honors."

"No, stop damn it you blasted draka!" Naruto struggled under her powerful tail. Toru advanced and started going though some handseals with his paws, (Dragon paws are humanish but Toru and Tala only have three fingers and one thumb. Also they are scaley and have talons and whatnot.) "Draco henge release!" Toru growled.

Instantly a bright purple chakra evaporated off of Naruto's body. Tala let Naruto up so the others could see him. Standing where Naruto was, was a large five-tailed golden kitsune. It had bright blue eyes and it was growling menaceingly at the two smirking dragons.

Sakura looked around the clearing before she settled her gaze on the scowling fox. "Na..ru..to?" The golden kitsune looked at Sakura sheepishly. "umm…surprise?"

Sakura fainted at the talking fox. Naruto ran over to Sakura, "Sakura! Sakura!" He frantically nudged her with his long snout.

Her eyes fluttered open. "Naruto…" She sat up with a start. "What happened to you Naruto!"

"Well, apparently that teme Orochimaru decided to play around with my seal and Kyuubi had to merge with me to save me from his last experiment."

"But you said that you were unconscious at Orochimaru's." Shikamaru stated, shaking a look of shock off his face.

"Well…" Naruto grinned sheepishly, "I was kinda awake for all his experiments."

Everyone in the clearing went silent.

Shikamaru seemed to be a bit shocked. Sasuke and Kiba mouths had dropped to the ground. Sakura had tears in her eyes and looked as if she wanted to hug him. Kakashi's book dropped to the ground only to be quickly scooped up and cradled in his arms.

"Can I change now?" Naruto growled at Toru. Toru grinned and nodded his head. Purple chakra covered his body again. When it cleared Naruto stood there in human form.

"Are you in a henge?" Sasuke asked sharingan activated.

"It's not really a henge. When I merged with Kyuubi I didn't lose my true form like Toru and Tala did. Their containers were sealed away, so the humans are sealed inside of the demons. When Kyuubi merged with me I would've been sealed away, but he and I understand each other so he didn't seal me away, but instead we share a body. Neither is sealed, but neither is completely dominant. So Kyuubi and I truly merged while Toru and Toru took control.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

"We have to get back to Konaha to prepare for the attack. How many days do we have left?" Shikamaru asked.

"I found out about the aattack 3 days ago so we have two weeks and four days till the attack. We wasted a whole day in this clearing." Naruto added looking up at the setting sun.

"I think we should head back and prepare for the attck, Naruto you're coming too." Shikamaru said as Naruto tried to inch closer to the refuge of the forest. Naruto sighed as Sasuke and Kiba blocked his escape route.

"Okay we have to head back to prepare." Kakashi said leaping up into the trees and heading off toward Konaha. Shikamaru close behind.

"You know I really don't need to go to Konaha so I'll just-" Sasuke grabbed Naruto as he tried to run the opposite direction of the village.

"Sorry dobe." He said quietly intoNaruto's ear before he hit him on the side of his neck.

"Damn you teme." Naruto whispered before he fell unconscious. Sasuke turned to Sakura and Kiba who were conferring with Toru and Tala.

"Toru and Tala say that they'll go with us and fight for Konaha, but if Naruto leaves, they'll leave." Sakura said.

"Thank you." Sasuke replied nodding to the twins. Kiba, Sakura and the twins leapt into the trees and followed Shikamaru. Sasuke pulled the unconscious Naruto onto his back and followed.

When the group was a couple minutes away from the village gates they stopped and looked over at Toru and Tala.

"Nani?" They both asked.

"Umm…most people aren't used to seeing talking dragons walking down the street." Sakura answered.

"Right." The twins gathered their chakra. Tala's was dark blue, darker than normal chakra. Toru had dark red chakra, darker than Kyuubi's. There was a blinding flash and a cloud of dust rose around them. When the dust cleared, standing where the dragons had been stood a young boy and girl. They both looked to be about fourteen.

Tala's human form was quite slim and had long black hair, pulled into a side ponytail that trailed over her left shoulder. She had dark blue eyes and flawless skin. She wore a blue high collared shirtand black shorts. Over her shorts she wore a blue skirt that had a design of a blue dragon on it. Across her chest she had a strap that held a katana sheath to her back. Her kunai hostler was on her left leg and she wore leg weights. She had black ninja sandals. She wore black fingerless gloves and in her left hand she held a short katana. It had a fold handal and it had a beautiful, but deadly looking blade. One side of the blade was black and the other side was the color of her eyes. Lastly, the ninja noticed that she wore a forehead protector around her neck.

Toru had wild black hair and a "X" shaped scar on his left cheek. He wore a black t-shirt with a red swirl on the front. Over that he wore a red jacket that reached down to his theighs. It had a gold collar. He had brown shorts with a kunai hostler on his right leg. He also had leg weights, but his looked like Sasukes in the forth fifth season, when he wore like…all black. He wore a katana on his hip, it looked like Tala's except it had a black handal and the other edge was red not blue. He had red eyes and on each cheek he had three whisker marks like Naruto.

Noticing the stares he got he explained, "I got the idea for my henge from Naruto. When we went into villages our cover was that we were all brothers and sister."

"Where did you get the forehead protector?" Shikamaru asked pointing to Tala's neck. "Naruto told me what it looked like and so I added it to my henge. It's symbol is different depending on what village we go to."

"Well, whatever works." Kiba grinned. "Let's go." They all leapt down and walked up to the guards on duty.

"We are back from retrieving Uzumaki, Naruto." Kakashi reported to the two guards, Ino and Choji.

"Who are the other two?" Ino asked pointing to Toru and Tala.

"This is Toru and Tala. They helped us capture Naruto as they were returning from a mission."

"But I've never seen them before." Choji stated.

"They are newly promoted chunin, they are almost always out on missions so no one sees them much." Sasuke lied.

"Now we must report to Hokage-sama." Before Ino could protest, they ran off toward the Hokage tower.


	9. Catching Up

Chapter 8

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, to find himself in the Hokage's office on the couch in the corner.

"What the hell!" He tried to jump up to find his hands bound behind his back, his ankles were bound too.

"You were thrashing around in your sleep, we didn't want you to hurt yourself." Kakashi explained sitting down next to Naruto. He started untying the ropes. Naruto sat up rubbing his wrists and looked around the room. Sakura, Sasuke, Tsuande, Jiraya, and Shikamaru looked over at him in concern.

"Nani?" He asked self-consciously at all the stares.

"Umm…" Sakura started and pointed behind Naruto. He turned around to find a large fluffy wagging tail.

"Oh." The tail disappeared in a swirl of chakra.

Naruto looked around the room, noticing something amiss. "Where's Toru and Tala?"

Right on cue, the twins walked through the door, their stomachs bulging. "When you say the best ramen in the world, you weren't kidding." Toru plopped down on the couch nest to him. Tala followed suit, sitting on his other side.

"Thanks for saving me some." Naruto replied sarcastically. Naruto's eyes lit up as Tala pulled a take out bowl from a new pack over her shoulder. Naruto grabbed the bowl and started slurping.

About three seconds later Naruto had puppy dog eyes and asked, "Baa-chan, can I go get more?" Everyone sweat dropped.

"Guess some things never change." Tsunade shook her head in amusement. Her look of amusement lasted for a few moments before she took on her Hokage serious look. "Okay, Naruto, we need to prepare for the attack."

For the next hour, Tsunade and Naruto talked about battle strategies and Naruto retold his story to Tsunade.

"Just like you would expect from you gawky, finding the ten-tailed dragon twins. Anyway, that's all for today so you have the rest of the afternoon to catch up with friends."

Before Naruto could protest, he was pushed out the door by Sakura and Shikamaru. "Where should we get everyone to meet?" Sakura asked Shikamaru.

"How bout that new club by my place."

"Perfect, Shikamaru, go take Naruto to get ready and I'll tell all our friends." Sakura dashed off to spread the news.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru mumbled, dragging a protesting Naruto to his apartment.

"Naruto, you are not going to a club in that." Shikamaru repeated for the third time.

"Why not." Naruto demanded.

"You're not going in ninja gear to a night club. Don't you have anything nice to wear?"

"Fine." Naruto grumbled, grabbing a sealing scroll from his pouch and walking into the bathroom.

"What a troublesome guy." Shikamaru complained going into his room to change.

Shikamaru returned to the living room before Naruto. He was wearing black slacks and a green silk long-sleeved shirt.

A few minutes later Naruto came out. Shikamaru's eyes widened at the change. Naruto wore black slacks like him. On top he wore a short-sleeved button-up shirt that was blue, like his eyes. He had somehow managed to make all his hair lie flat and straight, so it came down past his shoulders to be pulled into a low ponytail. His bangs were still a bit scruffy looking.

"Okay let's go." Shikamaru started toward the door.

"Fine, but you owe me a drink."

………………………………………………….

"Someone, help…..ne…ed……ai……r!" Naruto struggled against the fangirls that had ambushed him in the club. All the boyfriends looked at him with murder in their eyes.

Sakura and Ino arrived and quickly took in the situation. "Dang, now we have two groups of fangirls to scare away." Sakura said, amused at Naruto's predicament.

"Yeah, I thought we would only have to do it with Sasuke."

Sasuke was sitting at the bar, happy for once that he wasn't being clung to.

Sakura and Ino started pulling the girls off and pulled Naruto toward the bar where Sasuke and the others were gathered.

Naruto was now panting and quickly ordered a bottle of sake from the bar.

"Hey everyone, miss me?" He asked nervously noticing that killing intent was radiating off a few of his friends.

That greeting earned him a punch in the face from Kiba. "That's for dying!"

"Sorry, next time I'll try not to die." Naruto grumbled rubbing his cheek.

Next he found himself in an awkward embrace. "Umm…I missed you too….Lee."

"Yosh, I thought your flame of youthfulness had died with you, but now you back and you flame of youth shines brighter than ever!!!" Naruto pried Lee's arms away and he backed away. He backed into a very angry Neji.

"Umm…" Naruto ran toward the door to be stopped by Choji, Shino, and TenTen.

"Neji, don't scare him away, he just got back." TenTen scolded.

Naruto noticed that he had met everyone, except Hinata. "Guys, where's Hinata?"

He heard a squeak behind him and turned to find a red-facing Hinata looking him over. Naruto's face split into a huge grin. "Hinata-chan!" He reached over to hug her, but Shino got in the way.

"Nani?" Naruto asked confused.

"Please don't hug my girlfriend, you'll make her faint."

Naruto grinned again, "Congrats Hinata-chan, Shino."

Once he had greeted all his friends the girls started to pull the guys toward the dance floor.

"Ino, this is so troublesome." Shikamaru complained as she pulled him away from the sake.

TenTen dragged a protesting Neji to dance.

"So, Lee, did you and Sakura get together?" Naruto asked.

Lee shook his head, "We are just very good friends. I met a sand nin. She's very good at taijutsu."

"What about you, Kiba?"

"Nope, I'm single and happy."

"Naruto, why didn't you invite us?" Toru and Tala walked over to the bar.

Kiba's jaw dropped when he saw Tala. She had altered her appearance, she now appeared to be 21 and she wore a light blue dress. He hair was curled and hung over her shoulders.

Toru had done the same and he wore a red silk top and white pants.

Tala giggled when she saw Kiba's face. "Hi, I'm Tala."

"I….mmfph..gaa.." Kiba responded, jaw still hanging.

Toru got a menacing look in his eye, "Hey dog boy, quit drooling over my sister."

"Now Toru, be nice." Tala giggled.

She reached over and grabbed his shirt collar, "Let's dance."

Kiba got an excited expression and trotted after her. Toru scowled after the two.

"You're just jealous that she has a dance partner and you don't." Naruto teased, dodging a punch directed toward his face.

Naruto looked around the room and saw a group of girls staring at Toru with hearts in their eyes. Naruto grinned evilly, knowing how much Toru hated fan girls. "Hey girls!" He called, "Toru here doesn't have a dance partner or a girlfriend, want to help him out?"

Toru glared at Naruto with terror in his eyes as the group of girls stampeded over.

"I'd run if I were you." Naruto stated evilly. Toru gave him another glare before racing out the door.

Tala walked over, Kiba following behind happily. She glanced around, "Toru got chased by a mob of girls again?"

"Yep." Tala shook her head, "I told him to stop making himself look so good."

"Naruto!" Naruto paled and looked over to a very angry Sakura.

"Ummm….errr….hi….Sakura-chan." He grinned slightly preparing to be hit in the face.

"Hi, Sakura-chan, that's all I get after thinking you were dead for six years!!!!" She raised a fist, glowing with green chakra.

Everyone in the club stopped and stared disbelievingly at the large hole in the wall.

Sakura looked over and saw that Naruto wasn't moving, 'Crap! I didn't mean to hit him that hard.' She ran over and leaned over the still form. She started gathering chakra in her hand to heal him. Naruto disappeared in a poof of smoke.

"Sakura-chan, behind you." She looked up in surprise and saw Naruto standing on the roof behind her.

"Wasn't the homecoming I was expecting." Naruto stated, grinning at the now fuming pink-haired kunoichi.

"NARUTO, YOU BAKA!!!" She ran toward him. She raised her fist and tried to punch Naruto, who jumped down to the street and quickly dodged her fist.

"Sakura-chan, wait, please." Naruto ducked, swerved and dodged away from Sakura's punches and kicks.

She raised her fist up and slammed it down onto the street. A huge crack snaked its way over to Naruto. He tried jumping away only to find his ankle caught in the crack.

Sakura stormed over. "NARUTO, HOW DARE YOU LEAVE ME FOR SIX YEARS!!!" She grabbed Naruto and…..kissed him. Everyone around the two gasped. Tala smiled and Kiba whistled.

Sakura broke away and looked into Naruto's stunned face. Sakura blushed, "I missed you." Sakura whispered into his ear.

Naruto face broke out into a smile, a genuine smile. He leaned forward and whispered, "I love you, Sakura-chan."

There happy moment only lasted a few moments before the familiar threat came from an angry villager.

"Die demon!" he screamed throwing kunai and shurikan. The missiles were heading straight for him and Sakura. Seeing that his foot was still stuck in the crack he pushed Sakura away and braced himself.

"NARUTO!" Sakura looked over to see at least fifteen shuriken and ten kunai embedded in his body.

Toru and Tala raced over to the attacker and roughly grabbed and threw him toward Naruto's angry friends. Kiba punched him out cold. Kakashi roughly tied the man up and disappeared to take him to Tsuande. Sakura and Hinata were over Naruto's unconscious form, pulling out the kunai and shurikan. Sakura's hands started glowing as she tried to heal all the cuts.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN!!!" They heard an outraged voice yell from the Hokage tower. They saw Kakashi throw out the window and then a green blur as Tsuande raced toward Naruto. She was there within fifteen seconds.

She roughly pushed Sakura and Hinata away and started healing. She closed most of the cuts then picked him up carefully and raced to the hospital. Toru and Tala raced after her, the rest close behind.

'Naruto, you better not die again.' Sakura thought opening the door to the hospital. The group came in to find Toru and Tala arguing with the receptionist.

"Where is he!" Tala screamed at the lady.

"Tsunade-sama brought him in and doesn't want anyone to disturb them."

Toru grew very angry at this and his henge slipped. Now the receptionist had a look of terror as she stared at the large red dragon.

Naruto's friends froze. Tala quickly did some handseals and Toru's henge was back.

"Sorry, Toru likes his dragon henge when he's mad." Tala explained running out the door.

Sakura came to her senses first. "Where's Naruto?" She demanded.

"Oh, hello Sakura. Naruto is in the emergency room three." The receptionist replied acting as if nothing had happened.

Sakura, and the rookie nine raced off. When they reached room three, Sakura had the group wait outside as she went in to assist Tsuande.

Everyone was there. Kakashi, Jiraya, Asuma, Kurenai, and Shikamaru were sitting on a bench trying to act calm. Gai and Lee were hugging and sobbing about lost youthfulness. Kiba, Ino, and Sasuke were punching the walls, until a nurse came and threatened to kick them out.

The rest were sitting around with their heads in their hands, praying for the blond ninja to live.

Half an hour later Sakura and Tsuande came out, exhausted. "WELL!!!" Everyone demanded at once.

"He's fine, a kunai pierced his lung, but nothing else was life-threatening."

Everyone sighed in relief.

"He should be able to leave tomorrow because of Kyuubi."

……………………………….

'Why, even after six years, they're still trying to kill me.' Naruto pondered. 'I hate hospitals.' He looked around the white room.

The door opened and Sakura came in. "Naruto, thank you." Naruto looked up in surprise.

"Wha-"

"Thank you, you didn't have to save me. You could've died because of me." She walked over to the bed and kissed him.

"I love you." He whispered.

"I love you too." Sakura responded getting up to leave.

The door burst open revealing the dragon twins concern and anger in their eyes.

Tala ran over to Naruto and hugged him, "Naruto you're okay! The stupid receptionist wouldn't let us in and Toru lost his temper and dropped his henge so I had to take him to the forest to cool down. We thought the healing had gone wrong and you had died. Then we would be left alone with no friends and everyone would reject us from the village and we'd have to scrounge for food in the dumpsters! We'd be out on the street living in a cardboard box with no friends an-" Toru clamped his hand over Tala's mouth and drug her outside.

"She's kinda weird isn't she." Sakura gazed after the two, wondering how Tala could keep talking with a hand in her mouth.

Naruto grinned, "Yeah, she's one of the best fighters you'll ever meet and also an annoying blabber mouth."

Sakura walked toward the door, turning before she exited she said, "Tsunade-sama said you can leave tomorrow, and we have a mission tomorrow afternoon."

She chuckled as Naruto yelled after her, "Nani, stupid slave-driving old hag!"

Unfortunately Tsunade was on her way for a visit and heard his last remark. Naruto paled, eyes wide, when Tsunade stormed into his room, cracking her knuckles.

-Gulp- "Umm…I wasn't talking about you, I was…talking about the other old hag."

-Punch- There was now a Naruto-sized hole in the side of the building.

…………………………

Thanks for reviews everyone, I especially want to thank tryingtobecreative, thanks for reviewing all my chapters. I love all you reviewers, but my fingers are tired so I don't want to write all your names.

Also, sorry, but I probably won't get a chapter up next weekend cause I'm going to Oregon for an Orchestra festival with my school Orchestra. I get back on Sunday, so if I'm not to tired I'll try and get a chapter up.

Tala: Oh…can we say goodbye?

MoonDrake: Fine

Toru: Thanks for the reviews, see ya later.

Tala: Thanks everyone, we love reviews, if MoonDrake didn't get reviews she'd probably get all depressed and be to moody to write. If that happened then there would be no story and me and Toru wouldn't exist. We'd be some unreal dragons living in the unwritten world with no names or identities and the-"

-Toru drags Tala away, while MoonDrake starts to close laptop.


	10. Sushi and Spars

Chapter Nine (I think, I've forgotten where I am in the story

Chapter Nine (I think, I've forgotten where I am in the story. Don't give me those looks, I know I'm stupid.)

"Stupid, baa-chan, making me go on a stupid escort mission." Naruto grumbled as he walked down the dirt road.

The old team 7 was escorting a rich merchant to wave country. Toru and Tala came along to, because they refused to leave Naruto alone for more than an hour.

Around noon, the group stopped by a small river to rest. When Naruto and Tala saw the water they grinned mischievously.

They turned toward each other and nodded. Naruto started forming a rasengan, while Tala started sprouting wings. The merchant was staring wide-eyed at the strange girl, until Toru whispered something in his ear. The man nodded and both him and Toru started backing away from the river to the trees.

"Kakashi, what are they doing?" Sakura asked nervously, when Tala wrapped her arms around Naruto's middle. She started flapping her wings powerfully.

Sasuke, followed Toru, seeing Naruto's mischievous look.

When Tala and Naruto were thirty feet above the water, Tala tucked her wings in and Naruto stretched his arm out, they dove toward the water.

Kakashi's eyes widened and he leapt into the trees after Sasuke. A huge wave of water flew up around the pair, rising fifty feet.

"Shit." Sakura muttered as the wave came over her.

When the water finally settled, Toru returned, along with the other three. Sakura was picking herself off the ground, sopping wet.

Sakura began cracking her knuckles when she saw Tala and Naruto climb out of the river, wet and grinning. They high-fived and fell over laughing at the soaked Sakura.

Naruto stopped immediately when he saw Sakura gather chakra in her fist.

"Crap, note to self, don't laugh at super strong Sakura, especially when she's pissed." Naruto thought as he was sent flying into a large tree. Naruto crumpled to the ground.

"Oh my gosh, what have I done!?" Sakura cried. Running over to the still form.

Sasuke, Kakashi and Sakura ran over to the blond and bent over him in concern. What they didn't notice was the other three of their group inching away.

POOF Naruto's body exploded, orange paint flying everywhere.

"Paint clone, his own jutsu." Toru said walking over to the paint splattered team.

Sakura was now steaming. Everyone turned when they heard a large thump. Naruto had fallen out of tree, from a laughing fit.

Sakura ran over, punching him hard enough to knock him out.

"Great, now we have to carry him." Kakashi sighed picking up the unconscious blond.

"Geez Sakura-chan, you've gotten too strong." Naruto complained rubbing his head. The group were on the way back to the village, mission completed.

"You wouldn't be hit so much if you would grow up." Sakura retorted.

"She's like a second Tsunade." Naruto whispered to the blue dragon sitting on his shoulder. Sakura glared at Naruto when Toru started laughing next to her.

Naruto looked back innocently and smiled. Kakashi giggled behind his book, earning him a death glare from Sakura and Tala.

Feeling the looks he looked up into the blazing blue eyes of Tala. "It's not that bad." Kakashi stated.

Tala swiped the book from him and flew up. Throwing it up, she blew a large beam of ice freezing the book. Landing, she whispered something into Toru's ear. He grinned and blew a fireball at the booksicle.

Smirking, Tala looked over at Kakashi…to see him reading another book.

"I always carry extra copies." Kakashi said.

"Hey, everyone, after we turn in our mission report, do you want to go for sushi?" Kakashi asked, not looking up from his book, while Tala glared at the little orange book hoping it would burst into flame.

"Sure!" Sakura, Tala and Toru replied immediately. They all looked at Naruto in confusion, who seemed deep in thought.

'I wonder if the restaurant will serve me.' He thought. Toru glared. Naruto learned how to block his thoughts from the dragon.

"Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"Umm…I'll be there." Not waiting for a reply he took off toward the Hokage Mountain, leaving four confused faces behind.

"I'll turn in the mission report, you guys go see what's wrong with Naruto, I'll meet you at the sushi place." Kakashi disappeared in a poof of smoke, while the others followed Naruto.

"Where is he, I saw him come up here." Sakura searched around the Fourth's head.

"Hey, I think I found something." Tala called, looked down a large crack in the Fourth's ear. The ear was covered in shadows so the crack was difficult to find.

Toru and Sakura leaped over and looked into the large crack. It was big enough to allow a person in.

"What's that noise?" Sakura asked, hearing something inside the crack.

"Water!" Toru and Tala exclaimed. Tala shrunk and flitted inside.

After a few moments, Toru's eyes widened in surprise. "The whole inside of the head is hallow! There's a stream and grass and everything. It's like a forest in there! Naruto's in there too."

Sakura and Toru crawled in and looked around in amazement. The Yondaime's (the fourth's the yondaime right? If not, I'm sorry that I'm stupid and challenged.) head was indeed hallow and was about the size of a football stadium. Small cracks from the top of the head filtered light, lighting the cavern up. All along the ground, soft moss and grass grew. Trees and plants grew everywhere. In the middle of the cavern was a small lake, a stream flowing into it from a crack in the back of the bust.

In the lake, koi swam around and hid in the cattails along the edges. Small birds sang in the trees and there were squirrels, foxes and even a couple deer.

What caught their attention was a large golden kitsune lying in the middle of the lake, as if it were solid ground.

"Whoa." Was all Sakura could manage at the moment. How could all of this be in a stone head?!

The kitsune raised its head at the sound of her voice. That's what I said the first time I came in here. He sounded amused yet slightly depressed.

Toru settled down at the edge of the lake while Tala dove in.

"Naruto, come to the sushi place with us." Sakura said, walking over to the kitsune.

If I try and eat anywhere besides Ichiraku, I get spoiled food or I'm ignored altogether.

Sakura became furious at that. "That's not right at all, we can tell Tsunade and-"

And what, Naruto interrupted, I go complain to baa-chan and she yells at the chef. I get one good meal and as soon as she leaves, I go hungry or get beaten.

Sakura grew thoughtful then perked up as an idea struck her. "I'll be right back!" Before Naruto could protest, Sakura was running toward the sushi place.

"This will be interesting." Toru commented. He flinched violently as Tala splashed some water at him.

"Toru, I can't believe you're afraid of water. What if mom found out before we were sealed. Mom would cry and dad would call you an utter failure. Mom's side of the family wouldn't mind, but Dad's side would grow disgusted with you. They would've hunted you down and mom would try to protect you, but then they'd kill mom. You'd run away with shame and guilt, and then…" Naruto sighed and tried to tone out the babbling.

Toru was now seething. He leapt towards Tala, who dove underwater. Toru quickly veered up before he touched the foul blue stuff that he hated with a passion.

Not again…

"Arigatou." Sakura walked away from the restaurant with the rookie nine and Gai's team. Each was holding a bundle of food from the restaurant. Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai and Gai followed the group, carrying a few more bundles as well.

The large group grew confused as Sakura led them to a large crack in the Hokage monument.

"Saku-" Lee started, but Sakura just slipped into the crack. The rest of the group hesitantly followed.

"Wow." They all breathed as they entered.

"Naruto!" Kiba called out to the kitsune, who was watching two dueling dragons. One who only dodged while she talked, the other growing angrier by the second.

Sakura-chan, what's going on? The kitsune tilted his head in confusion.

Everyone who hadn't been on the Naruto retrieval team started in surprise. Hinata fainted.

"So, this is what Orochimaru did." A voice said calmly from behind the group. They all whirled around to see none other than…

Ero-sennin, what are you doing here?

"Well, I saw this group of misfits, so I decided, what the heck, I'll follow them." The toad sage walked calmly over to the fox, who stood and changed its form.

"Naruto!" Ino shouted in surprise.

"Sakura, could you tell them?" Naruto sighed, walking over to a large tree, pushing the dragons apart on his way. "Wake me when you're done."

Naruto leaned against the tree and closed his eyes.

Sakura sighed. "Okay everyone, sit down."

When everyone was seated Sakura began. "Remember when Tsunade-sama told us about Kyuubi right after Naruto died?" Everyone nodded.

"Well, Orochimaru knew too."

"Oi Naruto, wake up!" Kiba sent a piece of sushi sailing toward Naruto's head. Naruto's eyes snapped open and he quickly caught the projectile and threw it back toward Kiba before they could blink.

"So, did you tell them, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura nodded.

Naruto sighed. "Well?" He asked looking at the group.

"Well, what?" TenTen replied.

"Y..You don't mind?" Naruto asked in surprise.

"Should we? Just because you look like a fox doesn't mean you're evil. Anyone who loves Ichiraku can't be evil." Choji munched happily on his chips.

"YOSH NARUTO-KUN, WHY WOULD WE MIND! YOUR FLAMES OF YOUTHFULNESS ARE BURNING TOO BRIGHTLY TO BE TAINTED WITH EVIL OR HATEFULNESS!!"

(Guess who.)

"YOU'RE YOUTHFUL ANWSER WAS BEAUTIFUL LEE!!"

"OH, GAI-SENSEI!!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

Everyone sweatdropped when the sunset genjustu appeared. Tala backed away from the strange pair, Toru looked at them in disgust.

"Hey Tala, want some sushi?" Kiba asked sweetly.

Tala shifted to her human form and sauntered over. "Only if it's tuna!"

Kiba blushed and offered a small box of sushi.

"Kiba and Tala sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Ino and Sakura taunted.

Toru scowled and walked over to Naruto.

"Hey dobe, let's spar." Sasuke said walking over to a grassy space to the left of the lake. There were no trees in the way and the field took up half of the cavern.

"Want to get your butt kicked eh Teme?" Naruto smirked, following.

"You wish, Dobe."

The rest of the group eagerly sat nearby to watch.

Naruto took a defensive pose. Sasuke watched in surprise as Naruto waited for Sasuke to make the first move.

Sasuke ran toward the blond, fist raised. Naruto followed suit. Both gathered chakra as they ran, their fists glowing.

Both fists made contact with each other. A huge boom was heard and both guys were thrown back.

Sasuke and Naruto both pulled themselves up from their craters, chakra spinning in their hands. Sasuke's attack sounded like thousands of birds while Naruto's had wind spinning around it violently.

The two rivals ran toward each other again.

"CHIDORI!!"

"RASENGAN!!"

Next time, Naruto vs. Sasuke!!

I'll update soon, I promise.

Thanks tryingtobecreative, I forgot about saying how everyone knew about the kyuubi.

Also thanks themainoffender, I'll try and add more details, but I usually write these in a rush in between homework and whatnot.

Constructive criticism wanted. R&R. See Ya!!


	11. Fight

Sorry everyone if you couldn't tell when Naruto was talking in his kitsune form

Sorry everyone if you couldn't tell when Naruto was talking in his kitsune form. On my laptop I bolded it but this laptop is really old and doesn't like me so it unbolded it and I didn't notice, next time I'll just quote it.

"CHIDORI!"

"RASENGAN!"

The shouts echoed through the huge cavern. The audience braced themselves for the impact…that never came.

Sakura looked up at her comrades to see that Tala had firmly gripped Sasuke with her tail, while Toru did the same with Naruto.

"Maybe you should take this outside; you might break the Yondaime's face." Toru suggested, releasing his grip on Naruto's wrist.

"Yeah," Tala agreed, unwrapping her tail from around Sasuke. "I don't think the villagers would like it if you broke their best Hokage's face. If you did, the villagers would probably come after you for revenge and then you'd be shunned, chased, and beaten. You'd have to leave the village and then you're friends would become depressed and then they'd follow you. Then you'd have to live with the guilt of being the reason that they lost their home and famil-" Toru clamped his paw around Tala's mouth.

"Okay then." Hinata said quietly.

"Fine, we'll move our battle to training ground seven." Naruto said disappearing in a swirl of wind. The jounin sensei's followed suit in a swirl of leave or poof of smoke. The rest of the group sighed and began their trek to their destination.

"Wow, you guys are slow." Toru flew lazily overhead of the group of rookies.

"Well, sorry, but most of us can't fly." Sasuke retorted.

The group finally reached training ground seven to find, the jounin, Tsunade, Shizune, Jiraya and almost every chunin and jounin and Anbu waiting in a circle around the training area. Naruto was sitting on a familiar log, looking up at the clouds.

"Took you long enough." Naruto complained.

"In case you didn't notice, we can't teleport. You're so troublesome." (I wonder who, if you didn't guess, you're retarded. Jk I love you all.) Shikamaru replied, leaning against a large tree.

"Anyway, let's get this on already." Naruto jumped off the log and calmly took up a defensive pose. Sasuke did the same. The clearing went deathly quiet as the ninja waited for the battle.

"Twenty bucks on Naruto."Jiraya said to Tsunade, who nodded. (I'm not sure about ryo values and I'm too lazy to figure it out so I'm going with American money.)

Naruto did a familiar hand sign and six clones appeared. Three of the clones charged toward Sasuke. Each clone pulled out kunai and shurikan and launched them at Sasuke with deadly accuracy.

Sasuke weaved expertly, dodging each projectile. He punched two of the clones, causing them to poof out of existence. He then threw five kunai, causing another clone to disappear. He ran toward the remaining three clones and quickly kicked and hit. When the smoke cleared, one Naruto stood waiting, ready to attack.

With a shout, Sasuke charged. Naruto and Sasuke went into a complex series of taijutsu moves, neither gaining the upper hand nor placing a hit. Sasuke brought his right fist toward Naruto face, only to be grabbed and twisted. Sasuke spun his whole body with his wrist and back flipped away.

"That all you got?" Sasuke taunted.

"Not even close." Naruto retorted.

Both leaped away to opposite sides of the field, hands quickly moving from one seal to the next.

"Katon Dragon Flame Jutsu!"

"Water Dragon Wave Jutsu!"

Fire spurted out of Sasuke's mouth, while water rose from the lake nearby. Both took on the forms of long sinuous dragons.

"Go fire!"

"Go water!" Toru and Tala glared at each other.

"Fire!"

"Water!"

"Fire!"

"Water!"

"Fire Fire Fire!!"

"Water Water Water!!"

"Shut up!" Sakura came over and smacked both dragons.

Water and Fire collided, steam rose around the field. When the steam cleared, each bo- err man, was at opposite sides of the field. They ran toward each other with chakra glowing in their hands.

"CHIDORI!"

"RASENGAN!"

When both jutsus made contact with each other, a large sphere of chakra erupted around the pair, blasting away trees and earth.

The chakra disappeared, showing both men standing across from each other. To everyone's amazement, neither had a scratch on them from the last attack.

"Should we get serious, Teme?" Naruto asked mischievously.

"I'm ready when you are, Dobe." Sasuke replied.

Both guys reached down and pulled weights off their legs and arms. Weights flew across the field, leaving huge craters.

Everyone watching stared in amazement. 'Both boys wore more weights than Gai or Lee!'

Naruto and Sasuke took a step forward and then seemed to disappear. Neither Byakugan nor Sharingan could follow the two's movements.

The only way of telling where the two were was, every now and then there would be a flash of metal or a large explosion.

After a few minutes both stopped and started their hand seals.

Both bit their thumbs and slammed their hands to the ground.

"SUMMONING JUTSU!!"

The audience now resembled dead fish. Their mouths were hanging open and their eyes were round.

Sasuke was standing on a black and silver wolf the size of a house.

Naruto was standing on an orange and black fox the size of a house.

"Hello Saiyukia."

"Hello Kyuubi."

The audience of ninja tensed at the large fox. Noticing this, Naruto leapt down in rage and advanced toward the audience.

"Don't be glaring at Kyu! It's not his fault he attacked this rat hole of a village!"

"You're the ones who killed his kits and mate! Then you let Orochimaru go and 'take care' of Kyuubi!"

Many of the shinobi and kunoichi looked down in shame and guilt.

With a satisfied smirk Naruto jumped up onto Kyuubi again.

Sasuke was gaping at the fox in front of him. "How is that Kyuubi, he's sealed inside you!"

"This isn't really Kyuubi, this is Kyuubi's son. Kyuubi can take control of the mind of any blood relative. But he can only stay for as long as the relative allows."

"Anyway, where were we." Naruto bent down and whispered something in the fox's ear. The fox grinned and started lapping up huge gulps of water from the lake.

Sasuke and Naruto started up their seals again. Sasuke blew a small stream of fire as Saiyukia shot lightning from its tail. The fire started swirling around the lightning and the attack spun toward Naruto.

While this went on, Kyuubi had started blowing his water into a huge, floating sphere while Naruto gathered wind around it. It resembled a huge rasengan make of water. Blue chakra was seen crackling around the wind.

Both attacks were sent toward the opponent with great force. Once again, a huge explosion of dust and debris surrounded the rivals. The surrounding audience felt a ginormus shock wave when they guessed, the two great beasts collided.

Their guess was confirmed when the dust settled. Saiyukia had her teeth in Kyuubi's scruff while he gripped her foreleg in his jaws. Their tails were entwined, (by the way, the summons only have one tail right now.) and they were trying to claw at each other.

On Kyuubi's back, Naruto and Sasuke were kicking and punching at each other. Sasuke dodged a low kick but was then hit in the cheek by Naruto's right fist.

Somehow, Sasuke couldn't get a single hit on the dobe.

"You've gotten stronger." He stated, Naruto grinned and replied, "Same to you, Teme."

After several minutes of this, the summons were exhausted and poofed away.

Naruto and Sasuke were a few yards away from each other, panting heavily.

'Dang, I gotta finish this, I'm almost out of chakra.' Sasuke thought. He desperately started gathering chakra for his final attack. Naruto was doing likewise.

"HABATAKU CHIRDORI!!" (Yes, Sasuke figured out how to use it without being in curse seal state.)

"OODAMA RASENGAN!!"

Whoever thought that the normal chidori/rasengan explosion was big obviously never been near a habataku chidori/odama rasengan explosion.

Huge waves of energy blasted over the surrounding area, trees were uprooted or torn to splinters. Grass was peeled right off the ground followed by dirt, until only bare rock remained.

All the ninja had to jump a good mile away, or they would be blow into oblivion.

After three minutes, the shockwaves stopped and the audience returned to find two large craters on opposite sides of the field. One crater held an unconscious Sasuke while Naruto, painfully pulled himself out of the other.

He looked up into anxious green eyes. He grinned weakly, "Ow." Sakura managed to catch him before he hit the ground.

"You win." She whispered, smiling.


	12. Two Angry Dragons

Do you see Toru and Tala causing headaches and mischief in Naruto on TV

Do you see Toru and Tala causing headaches and mischief in Naruto on TV? Didn't think so, I don't own Naruto. I do own Toru and Tala. Steal them without permission and I'll track you down and beat you with a can of moldy peanuts!

…………………

"Must escape, evil white room of torture!' Naruto thought frantically, sitting up in his bed. He walked over and grabbed his clothes from a nearby chair and pulled them on, trying his best not to disrupt his various wounds.

'I hate hospitals with the burning passion of a thousand suns!!' Naruto quietly opened the window and jumped up onto the sill. Hearing voices outside his room, Naruto quickly jumped out the window and toward his house.

Naruto closed the door to his apartment and sighed in relief.

"NARUTO!!"

Naruto paled and shivered in fear. 'Sakura is really loud.'

:Hospital:

Tsunade stood by the door, chuckling at a fuming pink-haired kunoichi.

"Sakura, don't even try to keep him in a hospital for long. He hates hospitals. I learned after a few years that trying to keep Naruto in a hospital after he can move, is like trying to hold onto a rabid bear for more than ten minutes."

Sakura 'hmpf-ed' and stormed away.

……………………

"Sakura-chan is going to kill you for leaving so soon." Toru spoke up from the shadows of the apartment.

"I won't die without a fight." Naruto grinned back.

"Naruto!" Tala rushed out of the bathroom and flung herself at Naruto. "Thank goodness you're okay! After they dragged you off the field I started thinking. What if Sasuke had accidentally hit your heart or something vital. You'd start having trouble breathing and everyone would wonder what was wrong. You'd be in the emergency room for hours until you died. All your friends would be soooo sad and th-" Naruto put a hand over her mouth.

"Please finish already."

Tala nodded her head and Naruto released his hold.

"Anyway,meandToruaresogladyourokay,don'tyoueverworryuslikethatagainorwe'llbeatyouwithagiantwetnoodle!!"

Naruto edged closer to Toru and whispered in his ear, "Did you catch any of that?"

Toru sweat dropped and replied, "Nope, I've learned not to even try. It'll just give you a headache."

All of a sudden a large banging was head at Naruto's door. The door burst open to reveal a very pissed looking Sakura.

"Umm….he…hello Sakura-chan" Naruto stuttered.

Sakura stormed over and grabbed Naruto. "You need a check up before you do anything else today." Sakura looked up to see Tala and Toru staring at her. She brightened immediately and smiled. "Hi Tala, Toru, you two are welcome to join the rookie nine and Gai's team for training today. We'll be sparring at training ground seven."

The two dragons sweat dropped at her instant change of attitude.

"Umm…okay…thanks." Tala smiled back at her hesitantly.

"No problem, now if you'll excuse me." Sakura roughly grabbed Naruto's arm and dragged him off toward the hospital.

Naruto's whining could be heard all across town.

…………………..

"Okay, Toru, Tala, we all want to see what you can do." Shikamaru smirked at the two confused siblings.

"Come on Tala, let's spar. Don't worry, I'll go easy on you!" Kiba grinned.

"Uh-oh." Toru and Naruto muttered. They both backed away from the training group. As they went, they grabbed people's arms and dragged them away quickly. Pretty soon, only Kiba and Tala were in the middle of the training ground. The rest had been dragged off to the sidelines.

"Hey! Why'd you drag us off like that?" Ino complained. Naruto simply pointed to the pair. Tala had smoke coming off her body and was shaking with anger.

Kiba was clueless and was grinning wolfishly.

"WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!!" Tala roared.

"I… di..but…AHHHH!!" Kiba stuttered, running desperately as Tala blew a fire jutsu at him.

"JUST BECAUSE I'M A GIRL, DOES NOT MEAN THAT I AM WEAK!!" Tala jumped through the air and punched the spot where Kiba had been standing moments ago. The earth cracked and crumbled from the impact. A crater with the diameter of twenty feet or more formed around her fist.

Kiba's complexion changed to a ghostly white. "Crap." He muttered as Tala appeared in front of him and punched him into a tree. He was unconscious before he hit the tree.

Tala turned her angry blue eyes to the group of cowering ninja. "ANYONE ELSE WANT TO GO EASY ON ME!!" The group all shook their heads no in unison.

Tala brightened immediately and smiled innocently, a lot like Sakura had done that morning. "Good." She skipped away and perched herself up in a tree.

"She scares me." Choji muttered, grabbing a bag of chips from seemingly nowhere.

"Yeah, try living with her." Naruto grumbled.

"Try being her twin brother." Toru retorted.

TenTen walked over and solemnly patted their shoulders. "I'm sorry."

Naruto sighed and jumped over to Tala and started talking to her about something, but he was to far away to hear.

"What's he saying to the crazy chick?" Kiba had awakened and stumbled over to the group.

Toru glanced sharply at him, "Tala has a temper, she's can be weird, but she is not crazy!" Toru grabbed Kiba's shirt.

Kiba paled and stuttered, "Wait….I…d…didn't m..m…mean it like that!" He raised his hands defensively.

Toru didn't seem to hear and he threw him into the tree next to his original. Toru huffed and stormed over to Naruto and Tala. He said something angrily to Naruto. Naruto sighed and, before he could blink, threw him into the pond on the outskirts of the clearing.

Toru sputtered and quickly dragged himself out. He glared daggers at Naruto and stalked away.

Naruto sighed and walked back over to his group of friends.

"Thanks a lot, now I have to deal with two annoyed beasts." Naruto said sarcastically.

He 'hmpfed' and walked away toward town.

"Opps." Shikamaru said. The rest of the group grinned.

…………………..

"Stupid dog-breath, thinking he should go easy on me." Tala grumbled as she walked down the busy streets of Konaha, Toru beside her grumbling something about something that sounded kinda like, "clucking hog gas."

Naruto was leaping along the roofs, looking for the irritated twins. Finally spotting them he jumped down in front of them. "Hey, want to go get some ramen? My treat."

Tala and Toru brightened and grinned, "Yeah!"

………………….

IMPORTANT:

Sorry for the late update everyone. I have been soooo busy! Here's the deal. I have not been feeling like writing because for my last chapter, I only got four reviews! I'll update sooner if I get more reviews. This story has 14 favs, and 35 alerts! I should be getting more than four reviews! I don't care whether they say 'great job' or have a whole paragraph! Because of this, I refuse to even start writing the next chapter until I have at least 15 more reviews. REVIEW!!


	13. Akatsuki

I haven't gotten 15 more reviews left but I decided to be nice and post a new chapter for all the people who did review

I haven't gotten 15 more reviews left but I decided to be nice and post a new chapter for all the people who did review. I'm sorry to the people who reviewed, but because I didn't get 15 more reviews this chapter will be shorter than usual, but if I have a total of 55 reviews for this chapter, the next chapter will be extra long, or I'll try to make it extra long.

……………..

"You didn't have to throw me in the lake." Toru grumbled as he slurped up his noodles.

Next to him, Naruto just grinned and replied, "You needed to cool off." Tala and Naruto exchanged a glance and started cracking up.

"That was the stupidest joke I have ever heard." Toru glared at the two.

"W…we….we….were….n't…..lau…ghing……ab..out …th…..e….joke!" Tala gasped between laughs.

"You should've seen your face!" Naruto chuckled, grabbing up his pair of chopsticks and slurping noodles greedily.

Toru glared at them again before turning his attention back to his ramen.

"So, what do you two want to do for the rest of the day?" Naruto asked.

"How bout we go beat that dog-boy's ass ag-" Tala abruptly cut off. She was looking behind Naruto fearfully.

"What's behind me?" Naruto whispered.

"Akatsuki." Toru and Naruto tensed.

"Who?" Naruto asked.

"Itachi and Kisame, as usual. They aren't wearing the akatsuki cloaks and they have a henge of two chunin. They're directly behind you, pretending to look at katana's in the weapon store's window."

"Up and away. Three, two, one." Naruto, Toru and Tala, leaped up and away in the blink of an eye. The ramen shop owner looked down to see some money on the table.

The two akatsuki members leaped up after them and followed them toward the training grounds.

They landed in training ground 5 too see the trio waiting.

Their backs were turned but as they stepped closer, Naruto turned slowly.

"Long time, no see, eh Itachi, Kisame."

Kisame grinned and lifted his henge. "Well, surprise, surprise, the brat got smarter didn't he?"

Itachi released his henge and kept his face emotionless. (What's new.) "Naruto-kun, would you like to come quietly or will we have to force you?"

Naruto rolled his eyes and glanced over at the twins, "Is he kidding?" He turned back to Itachi, "Let's see should I go qui- No." Naruto pulled out a couple kunai and threw them lazily, yet accurately at the two Akatsuki.

Both merely sidestepped. Kisame pulled his sword from his back and raised it menacingly.

"This will be fun."

Kisame charged toward the trio sword held to the side.

………………….

Yes I know this chapter is incredibly short and has next to no detail, but I only posted this chapter because I felt bad for all the people who reviewed. Now if I have a total of 55 reviews, next chapter will be much, much longer.

Read and Review!


	14. Fights

Hey everyone

Hey everyone! Guess what! I got my first flame! Whoo- hoo, not. Ok NONEOFYOURBEEZWAX or whoever the heck you are, I don't give a damn what you think. First of all, I have never, in any of my stories said Kyu-chan, I have said Kyu, but I have never said chan. So that means you are either incredibly stupid, or just so jealous that you have to make stuff up so you can insult someone. Also, unless you want my chapters to come out every three weeks instead of every or every other week, I'd advise not talking to me about how long my chapters are. Thirdly, you can swear all you want, but I don't care. Also, if you don't like my stories, then…DON'T READ THEM!

Sorry, everyone else that you had to see my bad side, but as you can tell, I don't appreciate being insulted for stuff I don't even do.

Anyway, thanks to all you reviewers. If you're getting disappointed that I'm not mentioning you, I am going to mention every single reviewer when this story is completed.

I'm sooo proud of everyone, we reached our goal of 55 reviews. –Crys happily-

I just got something in my eye okay…No seriously, my bird flung a seed husk at my eye and it really hurts!

………………………..

Kisame charged at Naruto. When he was within a few feet of the blond, he brought his sword forward and swung it toward his chest. Naruto seeing the blade, merely grinned and crossed his arms over his chest.

There was a bright burst of light and dust rose around the foursome. When the dust finally cleared, Kisame stared in shock at what had happened. Somehow, Toru had managed to grab the large scaly sword with his tail, while Tala had appeared behind the swordsman and was holding a wickedly sharp claw to his neck.

"Don't move." Tala warned, her eyes cold and her voice deathly serious. Kisame, who wasn't intimidated by barely anything, gulped. Gathering his courage he answered, "What do we have here, a little dragon demon hanging out with a fox demon."

Faster than thought possible, Tala had grabbed Kisame by his arm and flung him into a tree on the opposite side of the field.

"What the hell." Kisame painfully pulled himself out of the wood pile. "This might be a bit difficult."

"No matter, they will tire eventually and then we can take them to Pein." Itachi answered coolly.

Toru inched closer to Naruto and Tala and whispered, "I see where Sasuke gets his attitude." Naruto grinned and Tala snorted.

By this time, Kisame had brushed of the debris and was now back by Itachi's side. "I'll get the dragon brat."

"Fine," Itachi replied impassively, "Just don't kill her."

"You take the fun out of everything." Kisame replied. He pulled his sword up once again and charged toward Tala.

"You can drop your henges if you want."

"Finally!" Tala and Toru shouted in unison. There was a poof of red and blue smoke. When Kisame was almost upon the jinchuuriki, Tala launched herself out of the cloud of blue smoke and pumped her wings steadily. She rose several feet above the swordsman and opened her jaws wide, expelling a steady stream of water that froze to ice as soon as it hit something besides air. Kisame quickly jumped out of her range, but not without getting a couple icicles in his hair first.

Where he had been previously standing, there was now a block of jagged ice that rose to form an upside-down icicle.

Tala was still in the air flying gracefully with Toru next to her, his broad, red wings flapping. Naruto stood on the ground, grinning as Kyuubi's chakra started leaking out.

"Itachi, you haven't seen me for a while, have you. Well, I'll just let you know, we will not be easy to take. Toru and Tala have dragon chakra while I have learned to fully control and manipulate Kyuubi's chakra up to the fifth tail. If you want us, you're going to need more than two people." Naruto taunted.

"Don't doubt us Naruto-kun, you aren't the only one who has gotten stronger over the years." Itachi replied calmly. Itachi's eyes flashed, changing to the blood-red of the sharingan.

Naruto stepped back in surprise, feeling the strange killer intent and bloodlust coming from the Uchiha. 'He's determined to get me this time.'

Before he could register the attack, Itachi had appeared behind Naruto and kicked him, sending him flying into pond, behind them. Naruto was able to regain his senses before he hit the water and flipped gracefully in the air and landed on the pond's surface as if it were solid ground.

Two chakra tails were now visible waving around behind the jinchuuriki. His eyes were a deed red and his pupils were slit. Canine teeth had formed into fangs that hung out over his lip.

Naruto flung himself forward and attempted to punch Itachi, but he merely moved to the side and avoided the hit. Before Naruto could get away, Itachi brought his hand up and grasped his wrist in a firm grip and twisted it.

Naruto cried out in pain and shock as an audible crack was heard. Naruto wrenched his wrist from the Uchiha and leapt backwards a few feet. He looked down momentarily and noticed his left wrist was pointed at an odd angle. He sighed and let his arm drop to his side, knowing his wrist would be useless now. Luckily, he had learned how to do all his jutsus with only one hand, like Haku.

He brought his right hand up and did a series of one-handed seals and said, "Wind Style: Winding Edge." Wind gathered in his hand, swirling around chaotically, but also forming into a sword shape. Naruto lifted his hand and a strange red chakra blade appeared, traces of destructive wind still swirling around the blade.

Naruto brought his blade up and jumped up, high above the ground. As he came back toward the ground, he swung his blade in an arc, toward Itachi and then slammed his blade straight into the ground. A huge, cutting, edge of wind was sent flying toward Itachi, who just barely moved in time by jumping into the air. When he landed on the ground he felt a powerful force cutting his legs. He looked down to see lashing, chakra and wind whipping around the entire field. Luckily for him, the layer of wind only reached about two feet off the ground, so it didn't cut his chest or face. However, it was starting to shred his legs to ribbons.

Itachi quickly jumped up into a tree and waited for the wind to stop. Naruto, seeing that his jutsu was being waited out, grabbed his blade by the hilt and pulled it out of the ground in one fluid motion.

As soon as the blade left the ground, the layer of destructive wind ceased, leaving the training ground calm once more.

……………………

Meanwhile, Tala and Toru were flying above Kisame, out of his reach. They were firing flames, ice and rocks at the shark. Swooping down, Tala shot ice down toward his feet. Kisame had ice freezing his feet to the ground, and Tala quickly flew over and viciously bit down on his neck.

There was a loud 'pop' and then Tala felt water run through her mouth. She widened her eyes in surprise when she felt something bite into her shoulder. Crying out in pain, she launched herself into the air and flapped her wings laboriously. When she was out of his reach once more, she turned her head to see that the flesh on her shoulder was ragged and torn. She could she the white of bone underneath one particularly deep cut.

'Curse that stupid sword!' She screamed mentally. She heard a roar of rage as Toru realized what had happened to his sister. He launched fireball after fireball at Kisame, who was merely sidestepping and ducking. Frustrated, Toru blew and released a long winding stream of fire. The fire swirled and whipped around like a snake, lunging and slashing toward Kisame. It seemed as if the fire had a mind of its own.

"Kuso." Kisame muttered when he felt the flame wrap around his wrist, burning the flesh.

Kisame quickly did a small water jutsu to put out the flame. As the water his the flame, smoke quickly replaced the two elements. When all the smoke had cleared, Toru looked over to see Kisame gone.

Toru flew around, desperately trying to find him before he found himself. Toru froze when he heard a squeal. Quickly he raced over to his sister.

When he got there he found his sister, limp and unmoving with a large gash in her left wing and torn flesh along her side. Temper flaring, he threw himself at the gloating Akatsuki and latched onto his front, ripping and slashing with claws and teeth.

Toru was so absorbed in his fury that he didn't even notice when the clone dispersed into a stream of water and never noticed the large net coming from overhead.

Feeling a great weight covering him, Toru lashed out, only to have his paw become entangled in the thick ropes. In fury, Toru squirmed and twisted, viciously trying to escape the net. After a few minutes, Toru lay exhausted on the ground, so tangled in the rope that he couldn't move.

The bloodlust slowly left the red dragon and he tried to assess the situation. Looking down to check on his sister, he started in surprise at the puddle of water replacing where his twin had been.

The blood drained from his face as he realized what happened. 'It was a trap, and I fell right into it.'

A twig snapped behind him. Turning his head as much as he could he found himself looking into the eyes of Kisame.

"Teme!" He growled out, starting to struggle again. Unfortunately all he managed to do was wiggle the end of his tail and move his head a bit.

Kisame grinned and pulled out a small dart from his pouch. Bending down he merely stuck the dart into the prone dragon's neck.

Feeling weariness suddenly cover him he growled softly before he fell unconscious.

…………………….

Naruto and Itachi were trying to land kicks and punches on each other, but they were both to fast for the other. Suddenly Itachi jumped back and put his hand to his ear.

"Well, we'll be back for you later Naruto-kun." And without another word he disappeared in smoke.

"What the heck just happened?" he asked himself out loud.

Thinking for a moment, he felt a sense of dread come over him. "Toru, Tala!"

Naruto sprinted toward the area where Toru and Tala had last been, desperately hoping for them to be okay.

……………………..

Well as I promised, this chapter was much longer and more detailed than my last one.

Thanks for the reviews people! My goal this time is a total of 65, but I'll write a chapter whether we reach that or not.

Also, I no longer accept anonymous reviews because of my first flame, so sorry people who read but don't have an account. Blame the flamer.

Tala: Bye everyone, thanks for the reviews. I love reviews and want to hear more lovely reviews please!


	15. Must Rip Itachi's Head Off!

Sorry for the late update everyone, I've been really busy

Sorry for the late update everyone, I've been really busy. Thanks for all the reviews, you're all awesome!

………………

"Tala, Tala, wake up!" Naruto shook the prone dragon desperately. He had been searching for the last hour when he finally came across Tala's beat up body. His heart nearly stopped when he saw his companion unmoving on the ground. When he came closer he saw the faint rise and fall of her chest.

Slowly, Tala opened her eyes and croaked, "Toru."

"Shh, you need to heal first." Naruto ran his hand over Tala's body, medical jutsu glowing a soft green. After closing her major wounds he sat back, exhausted.

"Can you do the rest?" He asked. The dragon nodded and closed her eyes in concentration as light blue chakra surrounded her scaly body.

Minutes later, all her injuries were gone, but Naruto could tell that her shoulder was still sore. Good thing about dragons, they can heal their injuries and are very difficult to kill.

"Tala, do remember what happened?" Naruto asked. Seeing her eyes cloud with grief she lowered her head and answered, "They took him."

"No!" Naruto cried out in despair. 'How could they take Toru, his friend, his comrade!?'

"They attacked me, but then Toru came, he drew their attention away long enough for me to pull myself away from them. I was watching through the bushed when I saw Kisame make a water clone of me to fool Toru. I was almost unconscious…I…couldn't warn him. They took him, they took my brother away!" Tears fell from her eyes and fell down her blue scales leaving glistening trails down her snout.

Naruto pulled the dragon into a hug and stroked her neck comfortingly. "Don't worry Tala, we'll get him back and kill the bastards who took him."

"You better change, people are coming." Naruto looked toward the village as he felt his friends' chakra coming closer. Tala quickly dried her tears and henged into her human form.

A couple moments later, Sakura, Sasuke, Kiba, Akamaru, and Shikamaru landed down next the two.

"What happened?" Sakura asked, noticing the damaged training field.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "Well…we kinda had a little…accident."

Sakura rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"What's wrong?" Shikamaru asked Tala, seeing her red eyes and faint tear stains on her cheeks.

"N..Nothing." Tala answered sadly. Unfortunately, Shikamaru wasn't easily fooled and looking around he noticed someone missing.

"Where's Toru?" Knowing he found the problem at her expression he started wandering around the field looking for clues of what happened.

Sakura walked over to Naruto and lifted him up by the front of his shirt. Giving him a 'tell me what I want to know, before I punch your face in' look, she demanded, "What happened." She shook him a bit for emphasis.

Naruto's eyes hardened and he answered in the most serious tone they had ever heard from him, "Akatsuki."

With that one word, everyone knew immediately what had happened to Toru.

…………………..

:Toru:

Toru slowly opened his eyes, his head pounding. 'What happened.' He thought groggily. Memories of the fight came back to him and he bolted upward, "Akatsuki!"

A wave of dizziness hit him and he crumpled back down onto the ground. Letting his head clear, he started examining his surroundings. He was in a dark cell, cold, hard stone on three sides and thick metal bars on the last.

Around his ankles and wrists were chakra-restraining shackles and a thick back chain collared his neck. Waving his tail in irritation he let lose a loud roar. "Hey you Akatsuki bastards! Let me go right now!"

"Now why would we do that after all the effort we spent trying to get you?" Itachi stepped out form the shadows on the opposite side of the bars.

"Well, you know, this place isn't much to my taste so how bout you let me out and I'll be on my way. I promise not to rip your head off." Toru retorted, snorting up a puff of black smoke. Unfortunately, because of the chakra restraints, he couldn't breathe a flame.

"Sorry, if I let you lose then Pein would probably kill me, so my answer's going to have to be no." Itachi replied. He turned and started walking away.

"Hey, walking away without saying goodbye, that's very rude. Who taught you your manners, a sugar-high koala?!" Toru shouted after him. His response was merely the loud 'THUD' of the door closing behind the Uchiha.

"Fine then, be that way." Toru snorted.

……………………

"Must…save…Toru…rip….Itachi…head…off…GET….OFF….OF…ME!!" Tala screamed as Kiba, Naruto, and Shikamaru tried to hold the angry dragoness down.

"Tala! You're not fully recovered yet, you don't know where they took him, and you'll get killed if we don't come up with a plan first!" Naruto tried calming the large blue dragon. When either of the twins gets angry or frustrated, they tended to shift to their dragon forms and make it hard on anyone trying to stop them from doing what hey want. Unfortunately, that happened to be Naruto, Kiba and Shikamaru at the moment.

"Damn it, let me go!" Tala squirmed and shoved to no avail. Of course the shinobi were having trouble keeping her restrained. They found out quickly that trying to hold down a very angry dragoness was like trying to hold an elephant down. Also her scales made her as slippery as an eel.

"Tala, CALM DOWN." Tala immediately stopped struggling and looked up at Naruto in surprise. He had never yelled at her like that before!

"Okay, that's better." Naruto let go of Tala and wiped some sweat off his brow. "We need a plan."

"Actually, first we need to know where they took him." Shikamaru said.

"Well, actually, I already know where he is." Naruto replied. "This isn't the first time one of us has been captured. Also we go around, finding and destroying Akatsuki bases."

"Where?" Shikamaru asked.

"Fourteen miles north of here." Naruto and Tala replied in unison.

"Okay then, here's the plan." Shikamaru pulled out a scroll and brush and started drawing the plans.

…………………………..

Okay everyone, sooooo sorry about the late update. The end of the school year is coming up and so of course, teachers believe they should give us enough homework to keep us busy through summer vacation. Then they say, "Oh, it's due tomorrow."

Also, I have been suffering major writer's block, so if anyone has new ideas for any of my stories, tell me and I might give them of try, all credit going to you of course.

Just so everyone knows, until Dead or Alive? Is done, the updates for all my other stories will be very slow. Sorry.


	16. Rescue

Okay people, I am sooo sorry for the really late update

Okay people, I am sooo sorry for the really late update. I am thoroughly pissed at my computer right now. I was almost down typing a seven page chapter for this story plus a new chapter for all my other fics when my comp decided, "Hey I wonder how mad I could make moondrake?" So it deleted all my files not once, but twice! So here I am typing my new chapters for the third time! Also this is shorter, sorry."

…………………….

"Why me?" Naruto asked himself as he bounded through the trees in his fox form. Naruto quickly dropped down a few feet to a new branch as a large fireball hurtled past. 'Me and my big mouth.'

"You didn't have to call them weak little turd monkey temes that couldn't even catch a little foxy." Tala said lightly as she jumped along next to him.

"Hey I was just trying to get them away from the hideout like Shikamaru told me to! And what do I get for it?! Three scorched tails and wet fur!" Naruto retorted.

Tala sighed in exasperation and rolled her eyes while dodging a water clone of Kisame. Naruto snapped his head toward the clone and popped it between his jaws. He spat the remaining water out with an expression of disgust.

"Gross! You could at least use clean water!" He yelled back to the following Akatsuki. His eyes widened in surprise as a large water dragon came hurtling to him.

"Kuso!" He yelled as he dropped to the ground before continuing running. Tala dropped down beside him and grinned.

"Maybe you should just stop talking to them." She laughed as the golden kitsune stuck his tongue out at her and sped away.

"What am I going to do with him?" She asked herself, speeding up to reach the fox.

……………………..

"They're coming for the dragon." A cloaked figure stated. Unlike the other Akatsuki, this person's cloak was completely black with no other design on it. The cloak covered the entire person so you could see nothing, but by their voice it seemed to be a woman.

"Is he ready?" Pein asked the figure, looking toward the prone body lying on the table in front of the woman.

The woman turned revealing bright yellow eyes that seemed to glow from beneath the hood. "Yes, everything is going according to plan. All we have to do now is to supposedly 'lose' the fight and let them take their precious little demon back."

"Good." Pein answered. He turned toward a couple guards behind him and ordered, "Take the demon to his cell, the one closest to where the Konaha brats are entering."

"Hai." The two grabbed the red dragon and carried him out the door, Pein and the cloaked woman watching until they were out of sight down the hallway.

……………………..

"Okay, it's this door." Shikamaru crept along the side of a large mountain, doors littering the rock in many places. The Akatsuki base.

Reaching a door with a small red circle in the middle the small group behind him stopped.

"According to the map that Naruto and Tala gave us, this is the entrance to the holding cells for the jinchuuriki."

Shikamaru, Sasuke, Sakura, Kiba, and Akamaru gathered in a circle around the door. The others nodded at him to signal that they were ready. Shikamaru reached over and grasped the iron handle in his hand and pulled the door open with a small creak.

Light flooded into the dark hallway, filling the cells lining the walls on either side. It was in the first cell on the right that the Konaha nin found poor Toru, unconscious lying on his side on the dirty stone floor. There was a nasty bump on his head, and many of his red scales were bloody and torn on his left side, blood trickling down from the cuts.

"Toru!" Tala gasped from behind the group, Naruto trailing behind.

"We finally lost them, by making shadow clones, they were all so mad by then that they didn't even notice. Luckily Itachi wasn't with them." Naruto explained to the puzzled looks that he received.

Tala was in a rage. Angrily she literally tore a hole in the bars and rushed to her brother's side. Naruto came in more calmly, but red started creeping into his blue eyes. Kneeling down Naruto placed his hand down on Toru's bloody side and started focusing his chakra. Tala next to him was whispering comforting words into Toru's ear as she tried to contain her anger.

Soon Toru's cuts started closing under Naruto's purple chakra.

"He'll be out for a while, but he should be fine." Naruto explained to the shinobi waiting anxiously behind him.

The other's showed evident relief on their faces and started carefully gathering the dragon in their arms, but Naruto was deep in thought.

'Why did the Akatsuki give him such minor wounds? They didn't even try to extract the demon chakra. Also, why was it so easy to get him out?'

…………………..

Thanks for reading everyone! Sorry it's so short but I wanted to get a new chapter out before my computer spazed again. I'm going to try and get a new chapter up every week, but I can't guarantee it because my computer is being so stupid. I was going to post this new chapter two weeks ago, but it kept deleting all my files! Anyway, please review!


	17. PUFFER FISH!

Thanks for the reviews everyone

Thanks for the reviews everyone! As soon as I read all the wonderful reviews I started typing up a new chapter. And dragonkingdom93, I'm touched that you would join fanfiction because of my story. Anyway, onward with the story! (Oh and by the way, I suck at planning so I'm just making the story up as it goes, so I'm running into some problems on where to end and what to come next so be patient with me please!)

…………………..

"TORU, YOU ARE NOT GETTING UP YET!" Tala yelled at her brother as he tried, once again, to escape from the small white room.

"NO YOU CAN'T KEEP ME IN HERE, YOU LET NARUTO ESCAPE!" He whined. Toru and Naruto shared their dislike for small white rooms, especially hospitals.

"DON"T MAKE ME TIE YOU TO THE BED!"

"YOU ALREADY DID TIE ME TO THE BED!"

"…WELL I TIE YOU DOWN WITH CHAINS AND CHAKRA RESTRAINING ROPE!"

"YOU ALREADY DID TIE ME DOWN WITH CHAINS AND CHAKRA RESTRAINING ROPE. APPARENTLY THAT DIDN'T WORK TO WELL!" Toru shouted back gesturing to the remnants of said chains and rope. The chains were blackened and melted and the rope was reduced to ashes.

On the opposite side of the room, Sakura, Shikamaru, Kiba, Hinata, and Ino were all staring wide-eyed at the two, huddled into a corner trying to stay out of the sibling's wrath.

Naruto sat back in a small chair propped against the wall reading his Ramen book. Sighing at the two's famous tempers he put down his book and glared at the two. "WILL YOU SHUT UP!?" Toru and Tala stopped and turned to face Naruto.

"Fine, but tell this stubborn idiot to lie back down and rest." Tala said, never releasing her glare on her brother.

"Who're you calling a stubborn idiot!?" Toru growled at her.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Here we go again." Directing his attention to the other shinobi and kunoichi he said, "Want to go get some ramen?"

The others quickly nodded and followed Naruto toward the door. Behind them insults were shouted behind them. The twins were oblivious to the other's leaving.

"YOU BULL-HEADED IMMATURE DRACLING!"

"DRACLING, I'M OLDER THAN YOU BY FOUR MINUTES, YOU GLOB-FACED SPINY MORON!"

"IDIOTIC FARTNUGGET!"

"LITTLE BLUE PUFFERFISH!"

Naruto chuckled as he closed the door. "Puffer fish, that's a new one."

………………………….

A couple hours later, Naruto and his friends made their way back up to Toru's room.

"TURD-MONKEY!"

"BLOWFISH!"

At this, Naruto sighed and walked over to the two. Grabbing both their ears he twisted viciously, earning a couple yelps of surprise. Leaning in close so that only the twins could hear them he said, "Shut it now, or I'll tell everyone about that night at the bar."

Both twins blushed in embarrassment and shut their mouths. (By the way, they're in their human forms.)

"Much better." Naruto smiled and made his way over to his previous chair. Suddenly his sparkling eyes became serious as he asked, "Toru, what did they do to you?"

All the grins disappeared and Toru stared Naruto in the eye, "I…I don't know."

Naruto walked back over to Toru, his hand glowing purple. He placed his hand on the dragon's forehead and almost immediately pulled away.

"Memory wipe." He stated.

"Okay, so apparently I can't help you guys and this hospital is really annoying me so I just leave no-"Toru was cut off as his sister yanked him back down onto the bed.

"Don't even think about it." She said, her eyes flashing a menacing ice blue. Toru hmpfed and sat back down on the bed. Looking up pleadingly at Naruto he asked, "When can I leave?"

Naruto sympathetically patted his shoulder as he checked on his wounds. "Actually, I think you can go now."

"YATA!" Toru jumped up and out the open window making his escape down the busy roads of Konaha.

Tala glared at Naruto before saying, "I'll get you for that." And on that happy note she jumped out the window after Toru.

"Dammit."

"What does she mean, she'll get you for that?" Sakura asked hesitantly.

"She'll pull a prank on me. Last time she threw me into a lake with some eels and leeches." Naruto replied nonchalantly.

………………..

Once again sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but this is more of a treat for the lovely reviews, the real action and stuff will be posted later!


	18. Experiment

Okay, I now have pictures of Toru and Tala on my deviant art so go check them out and leave a comment, please

Okay, I now have pictures of Toru and Tala on my deviant art so go check them out and leave a comment, please! The link is in my profile!

………….

"Pein."

"Orochimaru."

Both of them greeted each other.

"So, I know you want to destroy Konaha as much as I do, so will you agree to our alliance?" Pein asked.

"Of course, if it means the downfall of Konaha, but how do you plan to do this?"

"Well, for starters, to take down the Village Hidden in the Leaves, we must first take down the Hokage."

"And how do you plan to do that?" Orochimaru hissed.

"We have an…experiment that will prove the death of the Hokage." Pein replied evenly.

Orochimaru shifted excitedly in his seat. "And what is that?"

"We have a demon in their midst."

…………………….

"Hey Toru, come on, we have to go report to baa-chan!" Naruto called out, bounding across the roof of his apartment.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Toru grumbled, pulling himself out the window.

"Why don't you use the door, I have it there for a reason?" Naruto asked, chuckling to himself as Toru finally managed to make it out of the small window.

"I don't like doors, windows are more…inconspicuous." Toru replied, leaping onto the roof after Naruto.

"And people think I'm weird." Tala mumbled from her perch on the roof's edge.

Toru gave her a serious stare. "Tala, you are weird, I only happen to show weirdness occasionally."

Tala rolled her eyes, "Sure you do." She leapt up after Naruto heading toward the Hokage's office, Toru right behind.

………………

"Akatsuki and the Sound have teamed up." Tsuande said bluntly.

"Wow, way to get right to the point baa-chan." Naruto mumbled softly to Toru.

A tick mark appeared on Tsunade's forehead as she got up and punched Naruto into the wall. Luckily, the wall didn't break this time.

"Shut up, gaki." Tsunade said, returning to her seat.

"Anyway, we have found information that tells us that Orochimaru and Pein have made an allegiance and are going to attempt war on Konaha. We have also heard a rumor of a secret 'experiment'." She paused for a moment, watching the three ninja's expressions. "They said they have a demon in our midst."

All three jinchuuriki froze and stared with wide eyes. "What do they mean by that?" Tala asked.

"I don't know. But we have a theory, that they did something to one of you." AT this statement she looked to Toru.

"But I wouldn't, I didn't…HUH?" Toru stuttered confused.

"Toru, do you remember anything that went on when you were in the Akatsuki base?" Tsuande asked.

"No I was unconscious the whole time, I-"

"Exactly, you were unconscious, so how would you know whether they did something to you that could end up destroying Konaha?"

………………..

"So Pein, when do you plan on using your experiment?"

"Well, there's no better time than the present." Pein replied. He did a few hand signs and his eyes glowed blood red.

……………………

"But I wouldn't-" Toru abruptly stopped, not moving at all.

"Toru, what's wrong?" Tala asked, worried.

Toru's bright red eyes glazed over for a few moments, then red started creeping through his eyes, turning even the white, red.

"Hold him!" Tsunade shouted urgently. Before the two could grab him though, Toru snarled as he switched to his dragon form. Faster than any of them could believe, Toru launched himself over the desk, straight toward the Hokage.

"Toru!" Tala and Naruto shouted out in shock.

Tsunade quickly brought her arm up defensively. Toru's strong jaws wrapped around her forearm and bit. Sharp teeth dug into the flesh, drawing seemingly endless amounts of blood. Toru kept biting deeper and deeper until his teeth reached the bone.

Tsunade raised a fist and hit him on the neck, knocking him unconscious immediately. Gasping as the teeth loosened their grip, she gently pulled his jaws apart.

She looked up at the two shocked jinchuuriki.

"Well, we know what the 'experiment' is." Just then, three Anbu burst into the room. "Tsuande-sama!"

"You're late. Anyway, please take Toru to the medical labs and find whatever strange jutsu they used on him!" Tsunade snapped irritant.

"Hai." Two of the Anbu picked up the unconscious dragon and dragged him out. The third went over to Tsunade and started to look at her arm. Tsunade pulled away and snapped, "I can do it myself."

…………………….

"So, what's wrong with Toru?" Naruto asked the Hokage. A couple days had passed since Toru's attack and they still weren't sure what was wrong.

"I don't know, we know it's some kind of mind controlling jutsu, we can tell by the chakra traces, but we don't know the exact jutsu, so we can't counter it." Tsunade sighed wearily.

"It's strange though, Toru hasn't attacked anyone but me and shinobi ranked jounin or higher. He acts lifeless and uncaring when the medic nins study him, but as soon as I or a high ranked ninja comes near he goes into a rage."

"They want to weaken Konaha." Shikamaru said from behind. "Kill the Hokage and you weaken the village. Kill the Hokage and the jounin, and Anbu and you have a village that will surely fall. With only chunin and genin protecting the village, Akatsuki and the Sound will have no problem winning the war. They don't actually want war, they want a massacre."

"So they won't actually attack until, the ones who can actually fight, are dead." Tsunade finished.

"So, we need to destroy them, before they destroy us." Naruto said. "But how would we do that? Me and Tala know where a few of the Akatsuki bases are, but we don't know where all of them."

"We just have to draw them out. Shikamaru said. "Make it look like, Toru killed every high ranking ninja, then when they come to finish the job, we'll destroy them."

"How are we going to fake all those deaths?" Tsuande asked.

Naruto grinned, "I have an idea."

…………………

Okay, we're getting there. Only a few more chapters to go! I have to say, I loved writing this story at first, but now I just want to get it over with. Anyway probably about three more chapters. Although…I'm gonna miss this story. Maybe a sequel. grins


	19. Battles

Screams of pain filled Konaha

Sorry for the late update, I know I've been saying that a lot, but this time, my laptop died, atleast I thought it died, until I cleaned my room and found out the cord was unplugged…oops. Anyway it took me a week to figure out the computer was unplugged and it was making me mad because I couldn't write! Anyway here's the new chapter! Reviews make me happy! Also check out my drawings of Toru and Tala on deviantart, the link's in my profile. Leave a comment makes me happy!

…………….

Screams of pain filled Konaha. Blood covered the roads. Bodies of jounin and Anbu littered the streets of Konaha. In the middle of all of this stood a red dragon. His jaws were dripping with blood, his eyes completely red and filled with bloodlust.

The dragon shook his head as he heard a voice in his mind. 'Good job.' Shaking the bloodlust out of his eyes, Toru looked around in horror.

"No…" He whispered. "No, what have I done!" Toru unfurled his great wings and flew above the streets searching for a few particular people. Seeing a blue shape lying in the middle of the street he faltered and fell to the ground. He pulled himself over to the prone figure and wept.

"Tala, no, please, Tala!" The dragon nuzzled his head against his sister. "Please, Tala, wake up!" Toru looked down the street with tear-filled eyes. He scanned the ground knowing Naruto would not stray far from Tala in a battle. His searching eyes finally fell upon his friend.

"Naruto!" He stumbled over and pushed against the body. "Naruto get up!"

"There it is, kill it!" Shouts were heard down the street. Toru snapped his head up at the noise and saw the remaining chunin and genin approaching him, screaming in anger and grief.

Toru quickly launched himself into the air and flew toward the one place where he wouldn't be found. Landing on the fourth Hokage's bust he found the entrance and pulled himself in, shaking with barely contained grief. Dragging himself over to the lake he settled down on the shore and let out his tears.

"Toru!" A very familiar body was pressed against him, comforting him. Toru started in shock, "T…Tala?!"

"Toru, it's okay." Tala nuzzled her brother.

"B..But, you're dead…I saw you, and Naruto!"

"Shh, it was all a trick, you didn't kill anyone." Tala comforted.

"But, how?" Toru asked, still not believing his eyes.

"How else? Naruto."

"Hey, Toru."

Toru stared in surprise for a few seconds before launching his cat-sized body at Naruto.

Toru sobbed into his shirt, clinging onto him.

"Don't you ever do that again, never!" Toru cried burying his head even deeper into Naruto's chest.

"Toru, I'm so sorry, we never meant to worry you like that." Naruto cooed, comforting the seven year-old.

After several minutes, the sobs had subsided and now Toru stood, facing Naruto. And…he was angry.

"Why did you fake your deaths!!" Toru yelled, glaring at the jounin, special jounin and Anbu that concealed themselves in the fourth's head. Tsunade was there as well, and the rookie nine.

"We're trying to draw out Akatsuki and Orochimaru." Naruto replied evenly.

"Huh?"

So Naruto explained everything to the poor dragon. "We used my special shadow clones. The ones that you helped me perfect, shadow clones that are pretty much real bodies."

Suddenly a voice called out from the entrance. "The sound and Akatsuki are coming!"

"Okay, everyone, here we go!" Tsunade yelled out to the gathered ninja. "Don't let Orochimaru or any important Akatsuki get away! Take them out!"

"Hai!" Everyone shouted at once. Tsunade made her way over to the entrance and leaped out, followed by everyone.

"Come on Toru, Tala, let's do this!" Naruto shouted jumping out.

……………………….

The streets of Konaha were flooded with Akatsuki and Sound nins. Orochimaru could be seen on top of a large snake. Pein, Kisame, Deidara, and the other major Akatsuki members were perched atop the highest buildings, watching the battles.

Pein stood atop the Hokage building, watching as chunin and genin desperately tried to fight back. 'All according to plan.' Pein was pushed forward off the roof when a foot connected with his back. "Nani!"

Pein turned around in midair, staring in shock at the three jinchuuriki standing on the roof, where he stood moments ago.

"Next time, make sure that everyone is actually dead!" Naruto shouted, purple chakra surrounding his body. Toru and Tala also had chakra surrounding them. Their chakra was mixing together above their heads, twisting into an ominous cloud.

All three were in their demon forms. Two dragons and one fox growled viciously as they launched themselves at Pein.

………………

Meanwhile all three sanin stood atop their summons. Slug, Toad and Snake were glaring at each other, daring the other to make the first move. Orochimaru jumped off the Snake and dove toward Jiraya, sword protruding from his mouth. He didn't make it though as he felt the toad wrap its tongue around his ankle.

Tsunade jumped up, and smashed he fist into Orochimaru's back. Orochimaru jumped back quickly and shot numerous snakes from his sleeves toward both sanin.

……………….

Sasuke and Kakashi took on Kisame. Lee and Gai fought Deidara. Shikamaru, Chouji and Ino fought any sound or Akatsuki that came near, easily dispatching many.

………………….

Kisame quickly made water clones of himself, but Sasuke and Kakashi easily found the real one and attacked, managing to leave a long cut down his arm. Pulling the ripped sleeve off, Kisame threw it to the ground and proceeded to cover the area with water, turning Konaha into a large lake. The roofs of the buildings appeared to be floating on top of the 'lake'.

Kakashi barely managed to follow the man's movements underwater with his sharingan. Kisame jumped out of the water and aimed his large sword at Sasuke. Sasuke managed to dodge and retaliated with a chidori.

Kisame jumped up and dove back into the water.

…………………

All fighting seemed to stop. All eyes turned to the three sanin, staring in disbelief. Tsunade lay on her back, eyes widened as blood dripped onto her face. Above her was the snake sanin, two swords impaled through his heart. The first came from below, at the last possible second Tsunade had grabbed the nearest weapon and attempted to halt the snake's approach. The second sword came from behind. Jiraya had also picked up a sword from a fallen ninja and had impaled it through Orochimaru's heart in hope of saving Tsunade.

Orochimaru shuddered in disbelief, staring at the weapons protruding from his chest. Finally with a final shudder he stopped breathing.

Jiraya and Tsunade shook from exhaustion and both were wounded horribly, but luckily there were no fatal wounds. Jiraya looked toward Tsuande and grinned, "We finally did it." Seconds later he collapsed, unconscious.


	20. Dead or Alive?

Pein watched the two advancing dragons emotionlessly

Pein watched the two advancing dragons emotionlessly. Tala ran toward him on one side, jaws wide, while Toru came from the opposite a bloody katana gripped in his jaws.

After Orochimaru was announced dead, all of the remaining sound nins had fled. Seeing as the sound nins made up nearly three-quarters of the army, Akatsuki had decided to retreat. Pein had started back when the dragon demons came from either side. Naruto was on the third side, Kyuubi opposite. He was surrounded on all four sides.

Then Sasuke had appeared on the roof above with Saiyuki. Naruto, Kyu, and Sasuke remained where they were, ready to attack if the twins attacks failed.

Suddenly the twins were on him. Clawing, biting and slashing they seemed to move as one ferocious creature. Pein weaved and dodged away from each hit, none coming in contact. Toru brought his head back to deliver a fierce slash with the katana.

He closed his eyes when he felt the katana dig into flesh and felt hot blood splash against his face. He felt the victim shudder in shock before their body collapsed on the ground. Satisfied and triumphant he opened his eyes.

He looked down at the crumpled form to see…blue. The katana fell from his jaws and his look of triumph changed to one of horror. "T…Tala." Looking around frantically he noticed that Naruto, Kyuubi, Sasuke, and Saiyuki were all gone. Probably chasing after the elusive Akatsuki leader.

Toru dropped to his stomach, his legs no longer willing to hold his weight. "T…Tala, please, no." He gasped.

His eyes wandered down to the wound and he nearly leaped away. The katana had sliced straight through her chest, blood gushing. He had pierced through her heart. (1.)

"Tala…" Toru lowered his head and wept onto his sister's body.

"T…T….To..ru."

Toru started, his head whipping up in surprise. "Tala! I'm so sorry."

"Shh, T…Toru, I know, it…wasn't your…fau..lt."

"Tala, I-"

"Wait, I don't have much time left."

"Tala, no! You're going to be alright, I'll go get Tsunade an-"

"No, Toru."

"Tala, what are you saying, we'll-"

"Toru, listen! I…don't have much time. We can still defeat Akatsuki." Toru stopped his pleading when he heard this.

"No Tala, we can't! You'd die!"

"Toru, it's the only way, and…I'm already dying."

"Tala, I don-"

"Toru, this is the only way. As we speak Pein is getting fu…further and further away. We have to do this."

Toru closed his eyes, glistening tears spilling down his face. Taking a shuddering breath he nodded hesitantly. When he opened his eyes, the sorrow and grief we masked by determination.

"Okay."

Tala smiled weakly and stretched out her right paw. Toru slowly reached out his left paw and slashed at Tala's palm. Then he ran his palm against Tala's claw. Clasping their bloody paws together, he stared straight into Tala's bright blue eyes. This was probably the last time he would look into those eyes.

"Promise me something." Toru started as his red chakra and her blue chakra started to rise. The two colors twisted together around their forms.

"Anything, brother."

Their chakra started winding around them in a ferocious whirlwind of blue, red and purple chakra.

"Promise me…we'll meet again, no matter what. Swear to me, that we will see each other again!" Tears streamed from both red and blue eyes.

"I, Talatha Alayscali, swear to you, Mitoruo Alayscali that we will meet again." (2.)

As she finished this vow, the whirlwind had changed to pure purple.

"I love you Toru." Tala's eyes changed into the bright purple, matching the cyclone.

"I love you Tala." Toru's eyes changed into the same purple color.

The cyclone had started to widen. Purple chakra swirled around the twins.

"Until we meet again, brother."

"Until we meet again, sister." (3.)

The cyclone abruptly stilled, then exploded outward. It spread out in all directions from the two. It swept over Konaha. Any of the invaders who came in contact with the chakra were instantly killed. Soon bodies littered the streets, but the one most noticed was the corpse of Pein.

Lying nearby was Naruto, eyes closed and a kunai buried in his chest. "Naruto!" Sakura rushed over when she noticed the blond. "Naruto, no, stay with me!"

After several minutes of healing, Naruto finally opened his eyes, "No fair…he caught…me off guard."

…………………..

Toru slowly opened his eyes, blinking at the bright light. He was in…a hospital room.

Trying to sit up he found it nearly impossible. He was extremely weak and felt as if he had no chakra left.

'What happene-…Tala.' He remembered.

Hot tears spilled down his cheeks.

"Toru." Toru raised his eyes, finally noticing the other person in the room with him. Naruto didn't look too well, he noticed. White bandages covered his torso. His clothes were torn and dirty and black bags were under his eyes.

"Toru, it was for the best. Tala wanted it this way." Naruto soothed, sitting next to the dragon.

"I know. I just wish she hadn't. Also, what happened to you?"

"Kunai to the chest, nothing new." Naruto shrugged.

"How close to the heart?"

"Five centimeters."

"Cutting it close this time. Shouldn't you still be recovering?"

"I got Tsunade and demon chakra to help." He grinned.

After several minutes of silence Naruto finally spoke. "So…Agri sai." (4.)

Toru nodded miserably.

"What's agri sai?" Tsunade walked into the small white room. She gave Toru a worried glance.

Naruto opened his mouth to answer but was cut off by Toru. "Agri-sai. Or in dragon-speak, Destructive Sacrifice."

The room went silent as Toru once again felt tears flow. "Agri sai is something that only Tala and I can- could use, and we can only use it once. We can only use it once, because, it requires so much chakra…it would completely drain at least one of us. It's a destructive wave of chakra that eliminates anything that we want it to. Tala was already dying…so it was possible for us to use it. To use agri sai, Tala has to expel all of her chakra. I only had to reject half of mine. The chakra of the two demon spirits joins together, making the chakra ten fold more destructive than it usually is. Then, when we have rejected everything…we let it go. It is the most powerful technique known, but also the most regretful."

"Now, Akatsuki is finally gone…but so is Tala."

…………………….

Naruto walked back to his apartment with a heavy heart. Tala was gone. His comrade. Heck she was close enough to be his sister.

Finally reaching his home he felt a familiar chakra signature inside. He pushed open the door to see Sakura waiting.

"Hi." Naruto said. He was almost bowled over when Sakura pulled him into a hug. She bought her head up and kissed. Then she abruptly pulled away and put on a serious face. "Okay if we want this relationship to work you have to choose."

Naruto gave her a bewildered look. Rolling her eyes she continued. "You keep dying or almost dying on me, giving me heart attacks, so you have to choose one. Are you going too be dead or alive?"

Naruto grinned and pretended to think for a moment. "Alive." He finally declared.

"Good, I was hoping that would be your answer." Sakura pulled him into another kiss.

…………………

"Tala, I know you would've liked it here better than in the village." Toru said to the new gravestone.

He had refused to let Tala's body be buried in that graveyard for the deceased shinobi and kunoichi…it just didn't feel right. So, he and Naruto gathered up her body in their arms and gone out of the town, to the lake where they had first met.

They buried her body under a large cherry tree. Toru had actually swum to the bottom of the lake to find the smoothest and largest river stone. He had emerged shaken, but satisfied. Tala would freak if she had seen him get into the water.

Then he took his claw and carefully carved the words, "Talatha Alayscali, Companion, Comrade, Sister. Then he had drawn a flowing picture of a long, beautiful dragon, twining around the letters.

He placed the stone onto the grave and bowed his head. "I'll miss you sister…until we meet again."

……………….

: One Year Later :

Toru sat by the grave, sadly thinking of all the memories. He remembered when he and Tala were draclings, playing in a tall cherry tree. The tree was blossoming beautifully. He and Tala had jumped from branch to branch, trying to catch the other. Toru looked up, but his sister was nowhere to be seen. "Tala?" He had called. Suddenly, he found her. She pounced from a nearby branch and tackled him to the ground.

Her bright blue eyes shining with mirth she said. "Hey, I got you! I saw a big clump of sakura petals and I decided, 'Hey I can hide there!' So I jumped into the clump when you turned around and then I thought hey what if he can't find me! You'd jump to every branch in the tree and start growing frantic, when you didn't find me you would've gone into a rage and start burning down every tree in sight and then when I jumped out of the burning tree you would've been like, 'Oh No I almost killed my sister and then-" Toru had stuffed his tail into her mouth, effectively cutting off further talk.

They had wrestled for awhile until finally they ended up curled up around each other under the sakura tree.

"Toru, don't you just love cherry blossoms?" She had asked, staring wide-eyed at the petals flying around them.

"Yeah, sure."

"Toru…we'll always be together…right?" Tala asked suddenly.

Slightly taken aback he answered, "Well yeah, of course. We're twins, nothing can keep us apart."

Satisfied with the answer Tala had snuggled up closer to her brother and started drifting off to sleep.

"I love you, Toru."

"Love you too, Tala."

…………….

Sitting under the cherry tree he gazed sadly at the grave. "Love you Tala." A glistening red tear fell from his face onto the headstone.

Suddenly a bright tinkling laugh sounded. Toru started looking around franticly.

The laugh sounded again, it came from….the wind. Suddenly he felt warmth next to him, he could feel her spirit next to him, nuzzling him.

"Tala…"

"Toru, I love you too." Her voice was faint, but he could still catch every word said. Though he couldn't see her he still felt her.

"T…Tala, I miss you so much…I…I just want everything back to how it was." Toru sobbed.

"I know, I miss you too. Toru I swore we would meet again, and we will, we'll be with each other again…soon."

Toru started, "B…But…how?"

"You'll just have to wait and see. It might be in a way you wouldn't expect." And with those last words, she was gone.

………………………….

End of Dead or Alive!

Yes, she probably should've died right away but she's a demon and a dragon so she gets to live awhile longer.

Those are their full names.

I know, how could I kill Tala! I'm literally crying right now, but you never know, who says the dead should stay dead? )

Not Japanese…I don't think. This is a sample of my made up dragon-speak.

Yes, can you believe it, the story is actually over! Now what do you think of hmmm…say…a sequel?

If you want a sequel though, I need more than two reviews. To encourage reviews I even allow anonymous again. If I get at least ten good reviews, I will start writing a sequel, although it will probably take me awhile for me to start posting it.


End file.
